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ON THE THRESHOLD OF 

THE UNSEEN 



ON THE THRESHOLD OF 

THE UNSEEN 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF 

SPIRITUALISM AND OF THE EVIDENCE 

FOR SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH 



Sir WILLIAM F! BARRETT, F.R.S. 

With an Introduction by 
JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research 



" Men are wont to guess about new subjects from those they are 
already acquainted with, and the hasty and vitiated fancies they have 
thence formed : than which there cannot be a more fallacious mode of 
reasoning.'' — Bacon "Novum Organum," Bk. i, far. cix. 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
68 1 Fifth Avenue 



J6F\ D'3\ 

\3 \^ 



Copyright, 1918 
By E. p. DUTTON & COMPANY 



FEB20ll!i 



Printed in the United States of America 



©GI.A492321 



TO THE DEAR MEMORY 
OF ONE ' WHOSE RADIANT FAITH GAVE HER " THE AS- 
SURANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR " AND NEEDED NOT 
THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS UNSEEN WHICH THIS BOOK 
MAY POSSIBLY GIVE TO SOME STRICKEN SOULS AND 
OTHER SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH. 



PREFACE 

"A mind unwilling to believe, or even undesirous to 
be instructed, our weightiest evidence must ever fail to 
impress. It will insist on taking the evidence in bits and 
rejecting item by item. The man who announces his 
intention of waiting until a single absolutely conclusive 
bit of evidence turns up, is really a man not open to 
conviction, and if he be a logician he knows it. For modern 
logic has made it plain that single facts can never be 
'proved' except by their coherence in a system. But 
as all the facts come singly anyone who dismisses them 
one by one is destroying the conditions under which the 
cqnviction of new truth could ever arise in his mind."* 

During the greater part of the last century, and 
that which preceded it, the learned world as a 
whole treated with scorn and contempt all those 
obscure psychical phenomena which lie between 
the territory already conquered by science and 
the dark realms of ignorance and superstition. 
Many causes have in recent years contributed to 
lessen this aversion, which is not only passing 
away but giving place to an earnest desire to 
know what trustworthy evidence exists on behalf 
of super-normal, — often, but erroneously, called 
super-natural, — phenomena. 

Although many eminent scientific men in the 
past and present generation, both in England and 
abroad, have testified to the genuineness and im- 
portance of these phenomena official science still 
stands aloof. This no doubt is largely due to the 
essential difference between physical and psychical 
phenomena, a difference by no means clearly 

* Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
Research," Vol. XVIII, p. 419. 



viii Preface 

recognized and which can never be broken down. 
The main object of physical science is to measure 
and forecast, and from its phenomena free will 
must be eliminated. Psychical states on the con- 
trary can neither be measured nor forecast, and 
from them the disturbing influence of life and will 
can neither be eliminated nor foreseen. 

The association of ideas and methods of in- 
vestigation in physical research are therefore 
widely different from those in psychical research. 
Accordingly minds working in the former line of 
thought become more or less impervious to facts 
belonging to the other line of thought, however 
well attested those facts may be. The new asso- 
ciation of Ideas Is foreign and uncongenial and 
has apparently no harmonious relation to ac- 
cepted scientific truths. Nevertheless, as I have 
endeavoured to point out In the Introductory chap- 
ters, when these differences are realized, and the 
rapidly accumulating weight of evidence on be- 
half of phenomena, hitherto unrecognised by offi- 
cial science, Is critically and fairly examined, the 
general acceptance of these phenomena by science 
can only be a question of time. 

That this Is likely to be the case is seen from 
the fact that all enduring additions to our knowl- 
edge of the universe rest upon a similar basis. 
They are the result of prolonged and cautious 
enquiry, the investigation and discussion of a num- 
ber of circumstances, each of which by Itself may 
appear to be insignificant, but taken collectively 
point to some wide generalization. Such evidence 
though conclusive to a trained observer makes 
little appeal to the popular mind, which has no 
time nor inclination to master the necessary de- 



Preface ix 

tails, and asks for some one piece of conclusive 
evidence, — some "knockdown blow," — to compel 
its attention and assent. This however cannot be 
given, — as that acute thinker Dr. F. C. S. Schiller 
has pointed out in the quotation at the head of 
this Preface, — and there is nothing for it but a 
tiresome study of detailed evidence, the strength 
of which rests on its cumulative character. 

In the following pages I have given some of 
this evidence with as little tedium as possible, and 
also ventured to touch, perhaps too daringly, upon 
many subjects which need fuller exposition than 
was possible in a small volume, the history of 
which is as follows. 

More than twenty years ago an address on the 
phenomena of spiritualism, which I delivered in 
London, was expanded into a little book, — the 
nucleus of the present volume, — entitled "On the 
Threshold of a New World of Thought." Al- 
though an edition of that book was printed off in 
1895 its publication was delayed for more than 
a dozen years for the following reason. Consid- 
erable public interest was at that time being taken 
in a well known Italian medium, Eusapia Pala- 
dino; several eminent continental savants, and 
subsequently a few distinguished members of the 
Society for Psychical Research, after a searching 
investigation in 1894, had attested the genuine- 
ness of many remarkable phenomena occurring 
with this medium. Their report was quoted in 
my former book, but just before it was issued an 
opposite opinion was arrived at by others, equally 
competent, after a subsequent investigation in 
1895. It seemed wiser therefore to delay the 
publication of the volume until more conclusive 



X Preface 

evidence, one way or the other, was forthcom- 
ing. Moreover I felt that if Eusapia were really 
nothing more than a clever and systematic im- 
postor, able to deceive several eminent investiga- 
tors, both English and foreign, this fact would 
certainly shake the value of other scientific testi- 
mony to the supernormal, and undermine the 
stability of many of the conclusions reached in 
my book. 

As will be seen by referring to the history of 
this case, which I have given on pp. 65-67 and in 
Appendix C of the present work, repeated critical 
investigation in later years showed that this no- 
torious medium really possessed genuine super- 
normal power, albeit, like so many professional 
mediums of a low moral type, she sometimes 
lapsed into fraudulent practices, which however 
were quickly detected by trained observers. 

Accordingly "On the Threshold of a New 
World of Thought" was issued in 1908 and the 
edition quickly sold out. The remarkable series 
of experiments, carried out by the Society for 
Psychical Research, on the evidence for survival 
after death was then in progress and I postponed 
the publication of a new edition until further 
trustworthy evidence on this vital question was 
attainable. This, In my opinion, has now been 
obtained; my early book was therefore recast, an 
outline of some of the evidence on survival In- 
cluded, and the present volume is the result. 
Meanwhile the editors of the Home University 
Library^ had asked me to write the volume on 
"Psychical Research" for their series, and after 
this was published, various circumstances pre- 
vented the completion of this book until the pres- 



Preface xi 

ent year. Now, alas, the war has rendered print- 
ing and paper a great difficulty for the publishers, 
to whom my readers will I trust extend their in- 
dulgence for any shortcomings in this respect. 

It will thus be seen that the conclusions reached 
in this book are not the result of hasty and super- 
ficial examination. Upwards of forty years ago 
I began the investigation of alleged super-normal 
phenomena with a perfectly detached and open 
mind. The urgent need for a Society which 
should preserve continuity of records of investiga- 
tion and a high standard of experimental work 
became apparent, and with the co-operation of 
one or two friends the Society for Psychical Re- 
search was founded early In 1882. Forty-six 
volumes of its Proceedings and Journal have now 
been published, and in addition its sister society 
in America, — which through the assistance of 
some eminent friends in Boston and Harvard I 
was enabled to initiate in 1884, — has also pub- 
lished a large library of Its Proceedings and 
Journal, under the indefatigable editorship of 
Professor Hyslop. Thus a vast collection of 
sifted evidence is being accumulated and printed, 
which will be of immense value for future ref- 
erence and study. 

As regards the so-called "physical phenomena" 
of spiritualism, given in Part 2, bizarre and some- 
times repellant as such manifestations are, — and 
meaningless except as affording Illustrations of 
the operation of some unknown intelligence and 
power, — the evidence cited seems to me Indis- 
putable, though some of my readers may hesitate 
to accept it. A wholesome scepticism is desirable, 
but to attribute imbecility or hallucination to emi- 



xii Preface 

nent and cautious scientific investigators, or fraud 
to men of high intelligence and probity like the 
Rev. Stainton Moses ("M.A. Oxon") is simply 
puerile. Nevertheless, in the British Weekly, the 
writer of a lengthy review of Sir Oliver Lodge's 
book "Raymond" expresses amazement that Sir 
Oliver refers "without a word of caution to the 
record of Stainton Moses." He justifies this 
stricture by quoting from the writings of the late 
Mr. F. Podmore, who did useful work in connec- 
tion with psychical research, but was chiefly known 
for his ingenuity in discrediting, or attributing to 
telepathy, any psychical phenomena outside his 
limited range of view. Those who, like myself, 
knew both the Rev. S. Moses and Mr. Podmore 
would be Indignant if the latter attributed wilful 
deception to the former, but the writer in the 
British Weekly is mistaken and has no adequate 
grounds for thinking this was the case. It was 
necessary to refer to this matter, as the evidence 
of phenomena associated with Mr. Stainton 
Moses, which I have quoted In Part 2, might 
otherwise be regarded with suspicion by those 
who do not know the facts. 

In selecting some Illustrations from the grow- 
ing mass of trustworthy evidence on behalf of 
survival after death, given in Part 4, it will be 
noticed that I have refrained from citing any 
such evidence obtained through paid professional 
mediums, who are naturally regarded by the pub- 
lic with more or less distrust. Nor can the love 
of notoriety, or other Inducement to deceive, be 
brought against those through whom the evidence 
for survival given in this book has come. 

The question has naturally and often been 



Preface xiii 

asked, — -if communication with those who have 
passed into the unseen be possible, why should it 
be necessary to have a connecting link in a so- 
called medium, usually a perfect stranger and of 
another order of mind? Surely our loved ones 
who have recently entered the spiritual world 
would try to communicate directly with those 
dearest to them! a father or mother would be 
more likely to be sensitive to the spiritual pres- 
ence of their beloved child than an uncongenial 
stranger. This question I have discussed in Chap- 
ter X., and would also beg my readers to refer to 
the Cautions and Suggestions given in Chapter XX. 

Those who like St. Thomas cannot believe in 
survival after bodily death, without some material 
demonstration, will probably find in continued 
sittings with one or two friends, in the manner 
described in Appendix D, a response to their 
yearnings and an aid to their faith. ^ Having at- 
tained this assurance I do not advise them to pur- 
sue the matter further, but rather learn more of 
the spiritual world and spiritual communion from 
the Christian mystics of all countries; especially 
would I commend a book by the late Mr. J. H. 
Spalding, where the teaching of that gifted seer 
Swedenborg is luminously and dispassionately set 
forth.^ 

None will find in automatic writing, or other 

1 Anyone wishing to make experiments on, and a study of, 
automatic writing, are advised to read the late Mrs. Verrall's 
account of her own experience and method given in the "Pro- 
ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Vol. XX, and 
also Mr. Myers' paper in Vol. IV, p. 209, etc. 

2 "The Kingdom of Heaven," by J. H. Spalding (Dent & Co., 
3/6 net; my little book on "Swedenborg" (J. H. Watkins, i/- 
net), may also interest the reader. 



xiv Preface 

spiritualistic phenomena, the channel for the 
"communion of saints," which is independent of 
material agency and attained only in stillness and 
serenity of soul. For the psychical order is not 
the spiritual order; it deals, as I have said else- 
where, only "with the external, though it be in 
an unseen world; and its chief value lies in the 
fulfilment of its work whereby it reveals to us the 
inadequacy of the external, either here or here- 
after, to satisfy the life of the soul." 

The paramount importance of psychical re- 
search is found in correcting the habit of West- 
ern thought, — of the average men we meet, — 
that the physical plane is the whole of Nature, 
or at any rate the only aspect of the universe 
which really concerns us. Under this false and 
deadly assumption all wider views and spiritual 
conceptions wither and die as soon as they are 
born. This vast and devasting war has, however, 
brought certain spiritual tendencies and aspirations 
into the lives of a multitude of men and led many 
to the conviction, which Lowell expresses, that — 

"We see but half the causes of our deeds, 
Seeking them wholly in the outer life, 
And heedless of the encircling spirit world. 
Which though unseen, is felt, and sows in us 
All germs of pure and world-wide purposes." 

My warmest thanks are due to my friend the 
Rev. M. A. Bayfield, M.A. for kindly reading 
the proof sheets of this book and for many valu- 
able suggestions. 
31 Devonshire Place, 

London, W. 
March, 191 7. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

PREFACE vii 

Part I 

I. INTRODUCTION I 

II. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC OPINION 1 5 

III. CONFLICTING OBJECTIONS OF SCIENCE AND RE- 

LIGION 25 

Part II 

IV. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM . . 35 
V. DITTO 51 

VI. LEVITATION AND IMPUNITY TO FIRE 69 

VII. ON CERTAIN MORE DISPUTABLE PHENOMENA 
OF SPIRITUALISM; ECTOPLASMS; DIRECT 
VOICE; MATERIALIZATION; SPIRIT PHOTO- 
GRAPHY ; THE AURA 81 

Part III 

VIII. THE CANONS OF EVIDENCE IN PSYCHICAL RE- 
SEARCH 95 

IX. THEORIES 103 

X. THE PROBLEM OF MEDIUMSHIP II3 

XI. HUMAN PERSONALITY ; THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 127 
XV 



xvi Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Part IV 

XII. APPARITIONS 140 

XIII. AUTOMATIC WRITING. THE EVIDENCE FOR 

IDENTITY 161 

XIV. PROOF OF SUPERNORMAL MESSAGES; THE 

OUIJ A BOARD * 1 76 

XV. FURTHER EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL AFTER 

DEATH igO 

XVI. EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY IN THE DISCARNATE 207 
XVII. EVIDENCE FROM ABROAD OF SURVIVAL , . , . 222 

Part V 

XVIII. CLAIRVOYANCE, PSYCHOLOGY OF TRANCE 

PHENOMENA 235 

XIX. DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 246 
XX. CAUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 253 

Part VI 

xxl the lesson of philosophy in the inter- 
pretation of nature , 267 

xxii. the mystery of human personality . . 278 
xxiii. the divine ground of the soul; rein- 
carnation 284 

xxiv. telepathy and its implications 292 

Appendices 

a. superstition and the supernatural; 

miracles 301 

b. note by the late prof. balfour stewart^ 

F.R.S 308 

C. EUSAPIA PALADINO 312 

D. SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATORS 319 



INTRODUCTION 

I FEEL that it is somewhat presumptuous on 
my part to introduce a work by Sir William 
Barrett to the American public. He should 
be well enough known in this country to make 
an introduction by a much less qualified person 
unnecessary. But if it will help any one to 
read his book I shall gladly send it on the 
mission for which it was written. Sir William 
Barrett was for many years Professor of Expe- 
rimental Physics in the Royal College of 
Science for Ireland, and also spent many years 
investigating psychic phenomena, having 
Worked in the subject long before the English 
Society for Psychical Research was organized. 
Hence this work is the ripe fruit of many 
years of investigation. It is the best work of 
the kind that has ever appeared in English and 
readers may study it without offense at either 
its data or its manner. It is thoroughly scien- 
tific in method and spirit, and practices no 
evasions or subterfuges in the discussion of its 
problems. The manner is calm and tolerant 
of scepticism, perhaps because the author 
came to the subject as a sceptic himself, and 



xviii Introduction 

he selects all his facts with reference to the 
objections which sceptics and believers in 
other theories than the spiritualistic one 
would bring forward. The author faces 
issues boldly and makes no concessions to mere 
respectability, though not attacking or shun- 
ning it. In many writers there is fear of 
compromising one's standing by telling the 
truth. There is nothing of the kind in this 
book, and that characteristic makes it refresh- 
ingly frank and clear. Every aspect and dif- 
ficulty of the subject is canvassed and evidence 
produced for the claims made in the book. 
Readers cannot fail to find in it the light they 
desire on this complicated subject. 

James H. Hyslop. 



New York, 

December 21st, 19 17. 



ON THE 
THRESHOLD OF THE UNSEEN 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

"If anyone advances anything new which contradicts, 
perhaps threatens to overturn, the creed which we have 
for years repeated, and have handed down to others, all 
passions are raised against him, and every effort is made to 
crush him. People resist with all their might; they act 
as if they neither heard nor could comprehend ; they speak 
of the new view with contempt, as if it were not worth the 
trouble of even so much as an investigation or a regard, 
and thus a new truth may wait a long time before it can 
make its way."^ 

There are many people, and their number is 
rapidly increasing, who feel, as the late 
Professor Henry Sidgwick has said, "it is a 
scandal that the dispute as to the reality of 
the marvellous phenomena of Spiritualism^ 

^"Conversations of Goethe" (Bohn's Library, p. 47). 
^Spiritism is a better term, see p. 9. 



2 Chapter I 

should still be going on, — phenomena of 
which it is quite impossible to exaggerate the 
scientific importance, if only a tenth part of 
what has been alleged by generally credible 
witnesses could be shown to be true." Taking 
an unprejudiced view of the subject, such 
persons are anxious to know what amount of 
truth underlies the alleged facts. To these 
this little book may be of service. 

There are others who, whilst not denying 
that the subject may possibly be a legitimate 
object of scientific investigation, prefer to give 
the whole matter a wide berth; contending 
either that it is a worthless will-o'-the-wisp, 
luring its victims, by an imaginary prospect 
of knowledge, into a miserable morass, or that 
it is distinctly forbidden by the Scriptures 
and condemned by the Church, so that its 
practice, and some would even add its investi- 
gation, is unlawful. 

On the other hand, the popular habit of 
thought, whether lay or scientific, regards the 
whole thing as too contemptible for any 
inquiry, that it reeks, not of the bottomless 
pit, but of the dunghill; superstition, fraud, 
and tomfoolery amply accounting for all the 
alleged "phenomena." Hence they regard 
with complacency the many shallow quid- 
nuncs, ever on the look-out for something new, 
who find in fourth-hand stories of "spooks" 



Introduction 3 

abundant material for the entertainment of 
their friends. In a busy world, occupied 
with other things — where the fierce struggle 
for material existence, wealth, and position 
dominates everything — such a state of mind 
is very natural. But I have failed to find 
that a single person who ridicules Spiritualism 
has given to the subject any serious and patient 
consideration; moreover, I venture to assert 
that any fair-minded person who devotes to 
its careful and dispassionate investigation as 
many days, or even hours, as some of us have 
given years, will find it impossible to continue 
sitting in the seat of the scornful, whatever 
other position he may take up. 

No doubt the popular hesitation in accept- 
ing unseen intelligences as a cause of these 
phenomena arises not so much from inability 
to explain the modus operandi, but from a 
preconceived theory that such an explanation 
is impossible, and perhaps also from the fear 
of being laughed at as unscientific or super- 
stitious in adopting it. 

There are, however, some able thinkers 
who decline to accept or even investigate 
these phenomena on the ground that with 
our limited faculties successful investigation 
is impossible, and with our present limited 
knowledge, whatever results are obtained 
would probably be misinterpreted by us, so 
that any conclusions drawn as to the super- 



4 Chapter I 

normal character of the phenomena are worth- 
less, or, at any rate, to be distrusted. 

Even those who do not go so far as this, 
regard psychical research, whether it be 
telepathy or Spiritualism, as unworthy of 
serious attention, because the phenomena are 
either impossible or utterly trivial; therefore 
in either case a sheer waste of time. 

There are some things, I admit, which it 
would be utter folly to waste our time upon, 
such as ''circle squaring," or "perpetual 
motion," &c. These things are beyond the 
pale of rational investigation at the present 
day on account of the extent of our knowledge 
in those particular regions. But there are 
other things which to-day appear impossible 
only from the extent of our ignorance in those 
directions. Such, for example, as, say, the sea 
serpent, thought-transference, or Spiritual- 
istic phenomena; a few years ago we should 
also have included the telephone and wireless 
telegraphy. The essential difference between 
these two classes of improbable events is that 
the first involves a contradiction of experience 
or of laws well established, the second involves 
an unforeseen extension, but no contradiction, 
of existing knowledge and experience. 

To assert that mind can act upon mind 
independently of any recognised channel of 
sense, or that mind can exist associated with an 



Introduction 5 

imperceptible form of matter, is a consider- 
able extension of our knowledge, — if true as I 
believe it to be — but involves no rejection or 
contradiction of other knowledge equally true. 
On the other hand, to assert that 2 and 2 
makes 5, and also make 4, would involve 
intellectual confusion; similarly, to believe in 
materialism, as now understood, and also in 
these phenomena, would involve a contradic- 
tion of thought and consequent intellectual 
confusion; hence one or the other must be 
rejected. So that the "impossibility" that is 
urged refers, not to the phenomena themselves, 
but only to certain popular theories or con- 
ceptions about those phenomena. 

But it is urged that the utterly trivial 
character of the phenomena renders them too 
contemptible for serious inquiry. "Even if 
true, we don't care for the results you obtain," 
is a common observation. This was doubtless 
the feeling that prompted the illustrious 
Faraday to decline any further investigation; 
for he stated in his well-known letter to Sir 
Emerson Tennant^ that he had found in the 
phenomena "nothing worthy of attention," 
or capable of supplying "any force or inform- 
ation of the least use or value to mankind." 
With all deference to one whom I knew and 
revered so highly, this surely was a wrong 

1 Pall Mall Gazette, May 19th, 1868. The whole corre- 
spondence is given in Light, February and March, 1888. 



6 Chapter I 

position to take up. Long ago Benjamin 
Franklin, most practical of men, disposed of 
that argument; but the whole of Faraday's 
great career showed he valued truth for its 
own sake, irrespective of any commercial 
consideration, and supplies the best answer 
to the words of his I have quoted. Never- 
theless, we still find some scientific men of the 
highest eminence taking precisely the same 
ground. Thus Professor Huxley replying to 
Mr. A. R. Wallace, O.M. (who had described 
some spiritualistic phenomena he had wit- 
nessed), said "It may be all true for anything 
I know to the contrary, but really I cannot 
get up any interest in the subject." 

Some time ago, in 1894, the distinguished 
physicist and courageous investigator Sir 
Oliver Lodge answered such objectors in the 
columns of the official scientific journal 
"Nature," as follows: — 

"This attitude of 'not caring' for the results of 
scientific investigation in unpopular regions, even if 
those results be true, is very familiar to some of us who 
are engaged in a quest w^hich both the great leaders in 
the above-remembered controversy [Lord Kelvin and 
Professor Huxley] agree to dislike and despise. It is 
an attitude appropriate to a company of shareholders, 
it is a common and almost universal sentiment of the 
noble army of self-styled 'practical men,' but it is an 
astonishing attitude for an acknowledged man of science, 
whose whole vocation is the discovery and reception 



Introduction J 

of new truth. Certain obscure facts have been knock- 
ing at the door of human intelligence for many centuries, 
and they are knocking now, in the most scientific era 
the world has yet seen. It may be that they will have 
to fall back disappointed for yet another few centuries; 
it may be that they will succeed this time in effecting a 
precarious and constricted right of entry; the issue ap- 
pears to depend upon the attitude of scientific men of 
the present and near future, and no one outside can 
help them." 

But fifty years ago Professor A. De Morgan, 
with inimitable satire, had already exposed 
the unphilosophical and illogical position still 
taken up on tJhese questions by such honoured 
leaders of science as Lord Kelvin and Profes- 
sor Huxley. Nothing more brilliant or amus- 
ing has ever been written on the whole subject 
than De Morgan's preface to his wife's book, 
"From Matter to Spirit," and I earnestly 
commend its perusal to the scientific men of 
to-day. And to those who prefer Bishop 
Butler to De Morgan for their guide let me 
quote the following words from the "Anal- 
ogy"; "After all, that which is true must be 
admitted; though it should show us the 
shortness of our faculties, and that we are 
in no wise judges of many things, of which 
we are apt to think ourselves very competent 
ones." 

Nevertheless the argument is sometimes 



8 Chapter I 

heard that if these super-normal psychical 
phenomena are true they ought to be re- 
produced and demonstrated at pleasure. This 
was urged by that eminent physiologist Dr. 
Carpenter, speaking in reply to my paper at 
the British Association in 1876, when for the 
first time evidence on behalf of thought 
transference and other psychical phenomena 
was brought before a scientific society. That 
able publicist Mr. R. H. Hutton in his journal 
the Spectator showed the absurdity of such an 
argument, remarking that if it were valid we 
should have to reject as imaginary many of 
the psychological and pathological facts given 
by Dr. Carpenter and other writers on mental 
physiology.^ And as the late Professor Henry 
Sidgwick said, '^I have never seen any serious 
attempt to justify this refusal [to accept the 
evidence of rare and fitful phenomena] on 
general principles of scientific method." We 
do not know at present all the conditions of 
success, and it is to be expected they may 
be sometimes present and sometimes absent. 
Moreover, whether the phenomena originate 
in the unconscious self of the medium, or the 
operation of some unseen intelligence, in 
neither case can we control the exercise of 
the will. 

Before proceeding further it is desirable to 

1 See Spectator for September 30, 1876. 



Introduction 9 

define the exact meaning of the word Spiritu- 
alism. On the Continent this word is often 
replaced by the term "Spiritism" to dis- 
tinguish it from the broad sense of the word 
as used by philosophical writers, to denote a 
metaphysic opposed to materialism. But the 
generally accepted sense in which the word 
is used to-day is defined (i) by Mrs. Henry 
Sidgwick, in the article "Spiritualism," in 
the last edition of the "Encyclopedia 
Britannica," as "a belief that the spiritual 
world manifests itself by producing in the 
physical world effects inexplicable by the 
known laws of nature," or (2) by Dr. A. R. 
Wallace, in "Chambers' Encyclopaedia," as 
"the name applied to a great and varied 
series of abnormal or preter-normal pheno- 
mena, purporting to be for the most part 
caused by spiritual beings," or (3) by a writer 
in the "Spiritual Magazine," whose definition 
I curtail, as "a belief based solely on facts 
open to the world through an extensive 
system of mediumship, its cardinal truth, 
established by experiment, being that of a 
world of spirits, and the continuity of the 
existence of the individual spirit through the 
momentary eclipse of death." 

These definitions, it will be noticed, are 
somewhat progressive; the last is doubtless 
the usual meaning attached to the word by 
Spiritualists. I see nothing to dissent from 



10 Chapter I 

in it, and, speaking for myself, I do not 
hesitate to affirm that a careful and dis- 
passionate review of my own experiments, 
extending over a period of forty years, to- 
gether with the investigation of the evidence 
of competent witnesses, compels my belief in 
Spiritualism, as so defined. 

There can be little doubt that the impa- 
tience with which orthodox science regards 
spiritualism and psychical research in general 
arises from the difficulty of finding any ex- 
planation of the phenomena which is related 
to existing scientific knowledge. Hence, as 
Goethe remarked, in one of his conversations 
quoted at the head of this chapter, ''a new 
truth may v^ait a long time before it can make 
its way." My friend the late Mr. C. C. 
Massey has well pointed out: — 

'When we see how a thing can have 
happened we are much more ready to give a 
fair hearing to evidence that it has happened, 
than when the material offered is quite in- 
digestible by our intelligence. And thus an 
explanatory hypothesis is hardly less neces- 
sary for the reception of facts of a certain 
character, than are facts for the support of a 
hypothesis."^ 

So also more recently the late Professor 

* Preface to Du Prel's "Philosophy of Mysticism." 



Introduction il 

William James has said: "It often happens 
a fact is strenuously denied until a welcome 
interpretation comes with it, then it is ad- 
mitted readily enough." 

The insistence of the demand for some 
explanation of these phenomena which we 
find within us, is only a special case of that 
"continuous pressure of the causal instinct" 
which characterises our reason; and it is 
because of the difficulty of finding any 
adequate explanation of them in known and 
familiar causes, that science distrusts the ex- 
istence of the phenomena themselves. The 
reasoning faculty, in rejecting every known 
cause as inadequate, satisfies its unrest by 
rejecting the occurrences as improbable or 
unproved. In truth, there is, strictly speaking, 
no scientific explanation of the higher pheno- 
mena of Spiritualism. Secondary causes, 
with which science deals, are only antecedents 
or previous states of a phenomenon, and have 
more remote antecedents or previous states, 
which, in turn, need to be accounted for, and 
so on in an endless chain; thus to the scientific 
materialist God necessarily becomes an in- 
finite et cetera. 

With a real or true cause — still less with 
the ultimate cause of things — science cannot 
grapple.^ A real cause, though of limited 

1 See on this subject the remarkably suggestive and able 
work, "Personality, Human and Divine," by the late Canon 
Illingworth. 



12 Chapter I 

range, we find in ourselves, in our personality; 
and such a cause, perhaps of wider range, we 
find in the intelligence that lies behind many 
of the phenomena here discussed. But the 
operation of unseen intelligences — who, in 
some unknown manner, can affect us, and also 
affect material things around us, just as our 
personality can affect the grey matter of our 
brain, and through it things outside ourselves 
— this, although it may be a true cause, is 
as far beyond scientific explanation as the 
phenomena of consciousness itself. Until 
science can explain how consciousness is re- 
lated to the brain, — which, although a fact 
of daily experience, is wholly incomprehen- 
sible, — we cannot expect from it any explan- 
ation as to how discarnate intelligences can 
operate upon matter, or whence the energy is 
derived. (See Note at end of chapter.) 

But a change of thought on this subject is 
coming over the educated world. Some of the 
most cultured minds and acute investigators 
of recent years have satisfied themselves of the 
genuineness of the phenomena of Spiritual- 
ism, or at least that there is a strong prima 
facie case for serious investigation, and are 
profoundly irnpressed with the issues opened 
up and the vast movement of thought the 
general acceptance of these phenomena would 
create. Some, it is true, desire to suspend 
their judgment as to the explanation of the 



Introduction 13 

facts, whilst a surprisingly large number unre- 
servedly accept the facts as an "assurance of 
things hoped for, the proving of things not 
seen." "When we last met," said Holman 
Hunt to Ruskin, "you declared you had given 
up all belief in immortality." "I remember 
well," replied Ruskin, "but what has mainly 
caused the change in my views is the un- 
answerable evidence of spiritualism. I know 
there is much vulgar fraud and stupidity 
connected with it, but underneath there is, I 
am sure, enough to convince us that there is 
personal life independent of the body, but 
with this once proved, I have no further in- 
terest in spiritualism."^ 

Many stricken men and women in this 
gigantic and devastating war have found 
similar solace in the dark hours of their be- 
reavement. They have seen in it a ray of 
heavenly light falling — 

"Upon the great world's altar-stairs 
That slope through darkness up to God." 

Note. — There are of course various philosophical 
theories to account for consciousness and its relation to 
brain processes; in Chapter X I have briefly referred to 
this subject. Ultimately, as Dr. W. McDougall, F.R.S., 
has shown, we are compelled to choose between Material- 

i"The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," by Holman Hunt, O.M., 

Vol. n, p. 271. 



14 Chapter I 

ism and Spiritualism, using this latter word in its true 
metaphysical sense, "the soul theory." This theory in- 
volves psycho-physical interaction, and the argument that 
such interaction is impossible because it is inconceivable, 
has been answered by Lotze as follows: — "It is easy to 
show that in the interaction between body and soul there 
lies no greater riddle than in any other example of causa- 
tion, and that only the false conceit that we understand 
something of the one case, excites our astonishment that 
we understand nothing of the other." I quote this from 
Dr. McDougall's masterly and well-known work, "Body 
and Mind." It is a significant fact — although Prof. W. 
James said some time ago, "Souls have gone out of fashion" 
(in science and philosophy) — that to-day not only Dr. 
McDougall, but many other distinguished psychologists 
and metaphysicians, support the soul theory. 



CHAPTER II 

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC 
OPINION 

"Wherever there is the slightest possibility for the mind 
of man to know, there is a legitimate problem for 
science." — Professor Karl Pearson. 

It will I think be generally admitted that 
public opinion has taken a new departure 
with regard to the large class of important 
and interesting phenomena which lie on the 
boundary of an unseen world. We are on 
the Threshold of a new World of Thought, 
and the existence of the Society for Psychical 
Research, with the long list of distinguished 
men who are members of the Society or have 
^iven it their cordial support, is of itself a 
proof that a profound change of thought has 
taken place in recent years. Among the past 
presidents of that Society is a former Prime 
Minister of this country, the Right Hon. A. 
J. Balfour, who in his presidential address to 
the Society in 1894 spoke as follows^: — 

1 "Proceedings Society for Psychical Research," Vol. X, p. 6, 
et seq. The lapse of time since the foundation of the Society in 
1882 has left Mr. Balfour and myself the sole survivors of the 
original Vice-Presidents of the Society. 

15 



1 6 Chapter II 

"I think the time has now come when it is desirable 
in their own interests, and in our interests, that the 
leaders of scientific thought in this country and else- 
where should recognise that there are well attested facts 
which, though they do not easily fit into the framework 
of sciences, or of organised experience as they conceive it, 
yet require investigation and explanation, and which it 
is the bounden duty of science, if not itself to investigate 
at all events to assist us in investigating. . . . All 
arbitrary limitations of our sphere of work are to be 
avoided. It is our business to record, to investigate, to 
classify, and if possible to explain, facts of a far more 
startling and impressive character than these modest cases 
of telepathy. Let us not neglect that business. . . . 
If many are animated by a wish to get evidence, not 
through any process of laborious deduction, but by direct 
observation, of the reality of intelligences not endowed 
with a physical organisation like our own, I see nothing 
in their action to criticise, much less to condemn. . . . 
If I rightly interpret the results which these many years 
of labour have forced upon the members of this Society, 
and upon others not among our number, who are associated 
by a similar spirit, it does seem to me that there is at least 
strong ground for supposing that outside the world (as 
we have, from the point of view of science, been in the 
habit of conceiving it), there does lie a region . . . 
not open indeed to experimental observation in the same 
way as the more familiar regions of the material world 
are open to it, but still with regard to which some experi- 
mental information may be laboriously gleaned. Even if 
we cannot entertain any confident hope of discovering 
what laws these half-seen phenomena obey, at all events 
it will be some gain to have shown, not as a matter of 



The Psychical Research Society 17 

speculation or conjecture, but as a matter of ascertained 
fact, that there are things in heaven and earth not hitherto 
dreamed of in our scientific philosophy." 

These are the words of a statesman not of 
a dreamer or a fanatic; they express the 
opinion moreover of a singularly acute and 
philosophic mind, accustomed to sift and 
weigh evidence, and experienced in the errors 
and illusions as well as in the knowledge and 
thought of his fellow men. 

Another famous Prime Minister, the Right 
Hon. W. E. Gladstone, also gave his great 
name to the support of the Psychical Re- 
search Society, and for many years before his 
death was an Honorary Member. So also 
was the poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, the 
great painters G. F. Watts and Lord Leighton, 
as well as the famous writers John Ruskin and 
R. L. Stevenson. 

Foremost men of science both in England 
and abroad have shown their hearty approval 
by joining the Council or becoming members 
of the Society. Among these are to be found 
the recent Presidents of the Royal Society, on 
all of whom have been conferred the Order of 
Merit: Lord Rayleigh, Sir Arch. Geikie, Sir 
W. Crookes, and Sir J. J. Thomson. Another 
past president of the Royal Society, also given 
the O.M., Sir William Huggins, assured me 
of his support, when I issued invitations to 



1 8 Chapter II 

the conference which led to the foundation 
of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882/ 
Sir Wm. Huggins, however (like Archbishop 
Benson, who was also in hearty sympathy), 
for various reasons did not wish to become a 
member of the Society, though he had been 
convinced of the genuineness of certain 
super-normal phenomena he himself had wit- 
nessed. 

The active work of Sir Oliver Lodge in 
connection with the Society, of which he has 
been President, is well known to. everyone. 
On the Continent and in America many 
eminent savants have given their valued 
adhesion to the Society, e.g. Professor Charles 
Richet of Paris and Professor William James 
of Harvard, both of whom have been Presi- 
dents of the Society, and among other foreign 
members are to be found the names of 
Professors Janet, Bernheim, Lombroso, 
Schiaperelli, Flammarion, and that most 
strenuous worker Dr. Hyslop; nor must we 
forget the late Professor Hertz, "the lustre 
of whose name," as Mr. Balfour remarked in 
his presidential address, gave an added dignity 
to our proceedings. Nor have the more en- 
lightened clergy held aloof, such as the late 
Bishop of Carlisle, the Rev. R. J. Campbell, 

1 1 may mention here that in the foundation of the Society my 
friends the late Mr. Dawson Rogers and Mr. F. W. Myers 
co-operated. 



The Psychical Research Society 19 

and Bishop Boyd Carpenter, who has been 
a recent President of the Society, his suc- 
cessors being Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, D. Litt, 
Dr. Schiller of Oxford, and Professor Gilbert 
Murray, D. Litt., who was in 1916 the Presi- 
dent of the Society. 

There can be little doubt that much of the 
success the Society has won is due to the 
jwise guidance and indefatigable labour so long 
given by the first President, Professor Henry 
Sidgwick, — work most ably and zealously 
continued by his widow. It is almost needless 
to mention the immense service rendered to 
psychical research by the well-known names 
of those brilliant and gifted men — both Fel- 
lows of Trinity College, Camb. — Mr. Ed. 
Gurney and Mr. F. W. H. Myers, who were 
the first Honorary Secretaries of the Society. 
Some of us know the disinterested courage, 
the eminent fairness, and the self-sacrificing 
labour which Sidgwick, Myers and Gurney, 
brought to bear on the study of these difficult 
problems, and there can be little doubt that in 
another generation or two the names of these 
eminent pioneers will be held in honour 
throughout the educated world. 

Some think, not unnaturally, that the 
S.P.R., as its title is usually designated, 
proceeds too slowly and cautiously and has 
not shown a sufficiently open mind towards 
the physical phenomena of spiritualism. 



20 Chapter II 

There is no doubt some truth in this latter 
criticism, but we must remember that the 
caution with which the Society for Psychical 
Research proceeds is characteristic of all 
scientific investigation, and is doubly necessary 
in a region where there are so many pitfalls 
for the unwary. But if it builds up slowly 
it builds securely, and next to the addition 
of fresh knowledge within its domain, it wel- 
comes most heartily that investigator who can 
prove that any of the conclusions at which it 
has arrived are incorrect. It has no retaining- 
fee on behalf of telepathy or of ghosts, no 
vested interest in the super-normal. Theories, 
however plausible, that do not cover the whole 
of the facts observed must be rejected; super- 
stition reverses this process, but science should 
know nothing of prejudices and preposses- 
sions. As Sir John Herschel has well said: 
''The perfect observer will have his eyes, as 
it were, opened, that they may be struck at 
once with any occurrence which, according to 
received theories, ought not to happen, for 
these are the facts which serve as clues to new 
discoveries."^ 

It was this openness of mind which led the 
brave pioneers in the investigation of spir- 
itualistic phenomena, to risk their reputation 
and encounter ridicule and obloquy by their 

1 "Discourse on Natural Philosophy," sec. 5. 



The Psychical Research Society 21 

enquiry; and when they had obtained what 
appeared to them conclusive evidence of the 
genuineness of the phenomena, they published 
their opinions with what then required rare 
courage. Foremost amongst these was our 
own great exposer of fallacies and para- 
doxes, the eminent mathematician. Professor 
A. De Morgan, who wrote in 1863: "I am 
perfectly convinced that I have both seen and 
heard, in a manner which should make 
unbelief impossible, things called spiritual 
which cannot be taken by any rational being 
to be capable of explanation by imposture, 
coincidence, or mistake."^ Similar testimony 
has been borne by Dr. A. R. Wallace, O.M., 
and others of note, whilst Sir W. Crookes' 
famous researches in Spiritualism are known 
to all. 

But not only these and other eminent men 
have been convinced of the facts, multitudes of 
men and women in all parts of the world have 
come to a similar belief. Long ago Dr. A. R. 
Wallace stated in an article in "Chambers' 
Encyclopaedia," "Spiritualism has grown and 
spread continuously till, in spite of ridicule, 
misrepresentation, and persecution, it has 
gained converts in every grade of society and 

1 Preface to "From Matter to Spirit" (Longmans'). An ad- 
mirable summary of the statements made by distinguished in- 
dividuals who have been led to a belief in Spiritualism, is given 
by Dr. A. R. Wallace in his "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism." 



22 Chapter II 

in every civilised portion of the globe." They 
have had in their own experience indubit- 
able evidence of the existence of phenomena 
entirely new to the science of to-day — 
phenomena which receive their simplest solu- 
tion upon the hypothesis of a spiritual world 
and of intelligent beings therein, able through 
certain channels at times to communicate 
with us. Neither the blazing light of public 
opinion, nor the rogues that have too often 
duped the credulous, have shaken a faith 
which stretches back to a remote past,^ and 
which has grown in strength with the accumu- 

1 Cf. Myers' "Classical Essays," p. 83, et seq. See also 
Howitt's "History of the Supernatural," Vol. I, Chapter IX. 

Delitzsch, in his "Biblical Psychology," Sect. XVII, shows 
that "table turning" was practised in many Jewish circles in the 
seventeenth century; the "table springs up even when laden with 
many hundredweight." In a work published in 1614 this is de- 
nounced as magic. Zebi, in 161 5, defends the practice as not due 
to magic but to the power of God, "for we sing to the table 
sacred psalms and songs, and it can be no devil's work where 
God is remembered." 

But, going back 2,cx3o years, I am informed a prominent 
feature in the enlightened creed of the early Essenes was their 
belief in Spiritualism, tending to angel worship. In fact, the 
tenets of this mj'stic sect resembled in several other things the 
views held by many modern Spiritualists. 

The early Church Councils, e.g. of Elvira, A.D. 305, — a little 
later of Ancyra, — warned Christians against augury and spirit- 
ualistic phenomena as the work of the devil and his demons, but 
in the Ancyra "Canon Episcopi" about 900 A.D., these phenomena 
were denounced as pure illusions. This was not, however, the 
opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century nor of the 
Roman Catholic Church then and now. See Canon McClure's 
brochure on Spiritualism published by S.P.C.K. 



The Psychical Research Society 23 

lating evidence forthcoming from time to time 
and place to place. 

Now the philosopher Fichte has said: 
''Everything great and good upon which our 
present existence rests, and from which it has 
proceeded, exists only because noble and wise 
men have resigned the enjoyments of life for 
the sake of ideas. "^ Wh^t a man affirms is 
the idea he has made his own, and this is 
always interesting and generally worth listen- 
ing to; and what a number of men affirm 
and continue unshaken to affirm through 
years of opposing prejudice, or may be of 
persecution, is certainly a matter to which 
every honest lover of truth should give some 
heed. 

On the other hand, what men deny is either 
valueless, or evidence of the rarity or novelty 
of the occurrences denied, — unless indeed the 
denial be a mode of affirming another truth, 
like the denial of perpetual motion. Thus for 
anyone to deny the possibility of the electric 
telephone, as some scientific sceptics did in 
my hearing in 1877, is of no importance com- 
pared with competent witnesses who have seen 
and heard the telephone. 

How comes it then that the denials of the 
ignorant or the prejudiced as regards spiritu- 
alistic phenomena have had more weight in 

1 "Fichte's Works," Vol. VII, p. 41. 



24 Chapter II 

scientific and popular estimation than the 
affirmative evidence of the many witnesses 
we have referred to? The consideration of 
this question must be deferred to the next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER III 

CONFLICTING OBJECTIONS OF SCIENCE 
AND RELIGION 

"Is anything of God's contriving endangered by in- 
quiry? Was it the system of the universe or the monks 
that trembled at the telescope of Galileo? Did the cir- 
culation of the firmament stop in terror because Newton 
laid his daring finger on its pulse?" — Lowell. 

Why^ we may well ask, in an age pre- 
eminent for its fearless inquiry, and for the 
daring advance that has been 'made in regions 
where ignorance has for centuries reigned 
supreme, has there not been much more 
advance in a direction which would appear 
to be so important? Surely the supreme 
problem for science to solve if she can, is 
whether life, as we know it, can exist without 
protoplasm, or whether vv^e are but the 
creatures of an idle day; whether the present 
life is the entrance to an infinite and unseen 
world beyond, or "the Universe but a soulless 
interaction of atoms, and life a paltry misery 
closed in the grave." And although the 
province of religion is the region of faith, yet, 
surely, as a handmaid to faith, the evidence 
afforded by Spiritualism ought to be wel- 

25 



26 Chapter III 

corned by it. Yet, strangely enough, it is these 
two great authorities. Science and Religion, 
which have largely blocked the way. And 
when we ask the leaders of thought in each to 
give us the ground for their opposition, we 
find their reasons are mutually destructive. 

Our scientific teachers of the last generation, 
largely influenced by German materialism, 
denied, and many still deny the possibility 
of mind without a material brain, or of any 
information or knowledge being gained ex- 
cept through the recognised channels of sen- 
sation. But our religious teachers stoutly 
oppose this; they assert that a spiritual world 
does exist, and that the inspired writings 
contain a system of knowledge supersensibly 
given to man. Both views cannot be true, yet 
both are urged in antagonism to Spiritualism. 
Their common ground is that all extension 
of our existing knowledge in their respective 
departments must only come through the 
legitimate channels they prescribe; in the one 
case the channel is that bounded by the known 
senses, and the known properties of matter, 
and in the other the channel is that sanc- 
tioned by Authority. Everything outside these 
channels is heresy, and must be discredited. 
I am, of course, speaking generally, for we 
all know eminent men, both in science and 
theology, who take a broader and more ra- 
tional view. 



Scientific Objections 27 

At the same time there Is much to be said 
on behalf of orthodoxy. The inertia of Con- 
servatism is useful, nay, even necessary, in 
helping to suppress rash or hasty deviation 
from the recognised order of things; hence 
mere aberrations of intellect meet with a 
steady resistance, but that which is true, how- 
ever novel it may be, has a resiliency which 
grows stronger the greater the resistance it 
encounters, and finally wins its way among 
our cherished and enduring possessions. 

There are some cogent reasons which both 
science and religion might give for their op- 
position to this subject. The effect of their 
opposition has not been by any means an un- 
mixed evil. In the address already referred 
to Mr. A. J. Balfour has well stated one of 
these reasons. He says: "If we took it by 
itself we should say that scientific men have 
shown in connection with it a bigoted in- 
tolerance, an indifference to strictly scientific 
evidence, which is, on the face of it, discredit- 
able. I believe that although the course 
they pursued was not one which it is very 
easy rationally to justify, nevertheless there 
was a great deal more of practical wisdom in 
it than might appear at first sight."^ He then 

1 "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Vol. X, 
p. 4. Mr. Balfour is here speaking of mesmerism, but the re- 
marks equally apply to Spiritualism. 



28 Chapter III 

proceeds to show that as no nation or age 
can do more than the special work which 
lies before it at the time, so natural science, 
during its comparatively short life, has had 
enough to do in building up the whole body 
of the natural and experimental sciences, 
which within the last century have been re- 
constructed from top to bottom. "If science 
had at first attempted to include in its survey 
not only physical but psychical phenomena, 
it might for a century have lost itself in dark 
and difficult regions, and the work of science 
to-day would then have been less, not more, 
complete." 

I quite agree with this. Not only had our 
knowledge of nature to be first learnt, but the 
foundation of our sciefitific faith in the un- 
deviating order of nature had also to be laid 
by the investigation of the laws of matter 
and motion and the discovery of the orderly 
evolution of life. What science has now 
established, and holds as eternally true, is that 
the universe is a cosmos, not a chaos, that 
amidst all the mutability of visible things 
there is no capriciousness, no disorder; that in 
the interpretation of nature, however en- 
tangled or obscure the phenomena may be, we 
shall never be put to intellectual confusion. 

The magnificent procession of phenomena 
in the midst of which we stand; the realms 
and magnitudes above us, too vast for the mind 



Scientific Objections 29 

to grasp; the molecules and movements 
around us, too minute or too rapid for the 
eye to see or the mind to conceive, are all 
marching to the music of a Divine and Eternal 
order. On this system of the orderly govern- 
ment of the world, our faith in a Supreme 
Being is rooted; and the progress of modern 
science has made this faith an integral part 
of our daily life, whether we regard the 
Supreme as an impersonal power or as a 
beneficent Father. Now, if instead of invest- 
igating natural phenomena (I use that term 
in its common meaning, all phenomena are, 
strictly speaking, natural, only the Deity is 
jM/)^rnatural)^ science had first grappled with 
supernormal phenomena, I doubt whether it 
would have yet emerged from the abyss; cer- 
tainly it would not have reached its present 
assured belief in a reign of law. For psy- 
chical phenomena are so elusive, the causes so 
obscure, that we need the steadying influence 
of the habit of thought engendered by science 
to enable us patiently and hopefully to pursue 
our way. 

A similar argument holds good in relation 
to religion. The seers and prophets of the 
Old Testament were the statesmen and men 
of science of their day: they were in advance 

1 See Appendix A. 



30 Chapter III 

of the people, because their thinking was 
based upon a philosophy illuminated with the 
Divine idea, — the idea that through all the 
strife of nature and men one eternal purpose 
runs. And from Moses to Isaiah we find 
them united in warning the people against 
any attempts to peer into and forecast the 
future, or to meddle with psychical pheno- 
mena for this or any lower purpose. Divina- 
tion, enchantment, witchcraft, astrology, and 
sorcery were various methods of augury, or 
of attempts to inflict injury on an enemy, 
veiled in a cloud of mystery to impress the 
beholder; and necromancy, or the attempt to 
hold communication with the dead, seems to 
have been resorted to chiefly for the same 
purpose. 

These practices were condemned in un- 
measured terms by the Hebrew prophets, 
and this irrespective of any question as to 
whether the phenomena were genuine or 
merely the product of trickery and supersti- 
tion. They were prohibited — as a study of 
the whole subject undoubtedly shows — not 
only, or chiefly, because they were the prac- 
tice, and part of the religious rites of the 
pagan nations around, but mainly because they 
tended to obscure the Divine idea, to weaken 
the supreme faith in, and reverent worship 
of, the One Omnipotent Being, whom the 
nation was set apart to proclaim, And the 



Religious Objections 31 

reason was obvious. With no knowledge of 
the great world-order such as we know pos- 
sess, the intellectual and moral sense of the 
people would only have been confounded by 
these psychical phenomena. 

Still worse, a sense of spiritual confusion 
would have ensued. Not only might the 
thought, the industry, and the politics of the 
nation have been hampered or paralysed by 
giving heed to an oracle rather than to the 
dictates of reason, but the calm unwavering 
faith of the nation in an infinitely wise and 
righteous Ruler of all might have been shaken. 
Instead of the "arm of the Lord" beyond and 
above them, a motely crowd of pious, lying, 
vain, or jibbering spirits would have peopled 
the unseen; and weariness, perplexity, and, 
finally, despair would have enervated and 
destroyed the nation. As a learned and 
suggestive theologian has said: "Augury and 
divination wearied a people's intellect, stunted 
their enterprise, distorted their conscience. 
Isaiah saw this and warned the people: 
'Thy spells and enchantments with which 
thou hast wearied thyself have led thee 
astray.' And in later years, Juvenal's strong 
conscience expressed the same sense of the 
wearisomeness and waste of time of these 
practices."^ 

1 Principal G. A. Smith's "Isaiah," Vol. I, p. 199. 



32 Chapter III 

With these feelings many of us can sympa- 
thise, as we have felt much the same in the 
quest of these elusive phenomena. But be- 
yond this weariness, which in the search for 
truth we must endure, the perils which beset 
the ancient world in the pursuit of psychical 
knowledge do not apply to scientific investiga- 
tion to-day, which is based on the acknowl- 
edged omnipresence of order. 

The aversion that undoubtedly still exists 
among many Christian men and women to the 
whole scope of these enquiries is based, I be- 
lieve, partly upon the warnings contained in 
the Scriptures, to which I have alluded, and 
partly upon the more general ground that our 
investigations are an attempt to force an 
illegitimate entrance into the spiritual realm, 
a presumptuous effort to draw aside the veil, 
which both Scripture and our most sacred 
feelings have closed over the portals of death. 

What can we reply to this? I think the 
feeling largely arises from a misconception of 
the position. I have already dealt wih the 
ground upon which those magnificent men, 
the Jewish prophets, so strenuously forbade 
all psychical inquiry — grounds most wise and 
rational then, but inapplicable now. In the 
New Testament the condition, to some extent, 
changes; unmistakable warnings are uttered 
of the spiritual dissipation and danger which 



Religious Objections 33 

the early Christians would suffer if they 
allowed their religion to be degraded by the 
spiritual thaumaturgy still prevalent among 
neighbouring nations. 

The civilised world at that time believed 
in the existence of spirits in the air, and the 
illuminated spiritual insight of the Apostles 
saw (and I, for one, believe we shall all see 
this more clearly as our knowledge grows) 
that the unseen around us is tenanted by many 
spiritual creatures whose influence is some- 
times good and sometimes evil. Hence the 
apostolic injunction 'to try the spirits,' i.e. 
use our moral judgment and not be led astray 
by the foolish but common notion that every 
communication that comes from the unseen 
is good and worthy of credence. In fact the 
messages often spring from, and are invariably 
influenced by, the medium's own sub-conscious 
life. 

Moreover, the Apostle saw clearly, as every 
Christian sees, that the foundation of religious 
life, which consisted of faith in a risen Lord, 
is seriously imperilled when the seen is sub- 
stituted for the unseen, the phantasm.s of the 
spiritualistic seance for the realities of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, which cometh not with 
observation. 

The same peril exists to-day, and always 
will exist. This every thoughtful and reverent 
mind must admit, and it is a distinct warning 



34 Chapter III 

against making a religion of Spiritualism — ' 
But this is not an argument against the study 
of the phenomena as a branch of psychical 
or psychological science. Whatever be the 
power or intelligence behind these phenomena, 
the fact that it manifests itself to us — that, 
directly or indirectly, it impinges on our 
senses, and so affects our perceptive faculties, 
or can leave some permanent record of its 
presence — this fact not only places Spiritual- 
ism within the pale of legitimate experimental 
inquiry, but invites and demands the attention 
of science. 

It may be that these psychical phenomena 
are so elusive, depend so largely on conditions 
beyond our control, such as the activities of 
the subliminal self, or the volition of dis- 
carnate agents, that we shall never arrive at 
the laws that underlie them. But that need 
not prevent our observing, recording, and 
classifying the phenomena, noting the physi- 
cal and psychical conditions most favourable 
to their production, and the variations induced 
by a change in these conditions. Only thus 
can we hope to link the unknown to the known, 
and so to correlate these obscure phenomena 
with the general body of recognised knowl- 
edge. Until this is done they will remain an 
outstanding puzzle, and the educated world 
will continue to shun them. 



2 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 
OF SPIRITUALISM 

"Science is bound by the everlasting law of honour to 
face fearlessly every problem which can fairly be presented 
to it." — Lord Kelvin. 

It is now time to turn from the somewhat 
lengthy discussion in the preceding pages, and 
submit some of the evidence which has come 
under my own observation and has convinced 
me of the genuineness of the phenomena 
themselves. It is however hardly possible to 
convey to others who have not had a similar 
experience an adequate idea of the strength 
and cumulative force of the evidence that has 
compelled one's own belief. 

Unfortunately, where there is good coin 
there is also false, and Spiritualism has suf- 
fered from a fraudulent imitation trading on 
the credulity of the ignorant or uncritical. 

35 



36 Chapter IV 

In a paper^ I contributed to the proceedings 
of the Society for Psychical Research in 1886 
I stated that "reviewing the numerous seances 
I have attended with different private and 
professional mediums during the last 15 years 
I find that by far the larger part of the re- 
sults obtained had absolutely no evidential 
value in favour of Spiritualism; either the 
condition of total darkness forbade any trust- 
worthy conclusions, or the results were nothing 
more than could be explained by a low order 
of juggling. A few cases, hovv^ever, stand out 
as exceptions." These I proceeded to cite, 
and will here give the substance of two of 
them, as they offer, in my opinion, unexcep- 
tionable evidence of what has been called the 
"physical phenomena" of Spiritualism, — that 
is to say, the movement of objects, raps and 
other sounds displaying an unseen intelli- 
gence, for which no normal explanation can 
be found. 

For these manifestations Mr. Myers has 
suggested the term telekinetic, as spiritualistic 
is a question-begging expression, for they 
afford in themselves no evidence of the sur- 
vival of human personality after death. As 
a rule they are grotesque and meaningless, it 

1 "Proceedings, Society for Psychical Research," Vol. IV, p. '2%, 
See Appendix B, where I have reprinted a note on this paper 

which was written by that distinguished and far-seeing scientific 

man the late Professor Balfour Stewart. 



Physical Phenomena 37 

is only when the content of some of the mes- 
sages that are conveyed by telekinesis are ex- 
amined, that any slight and dubious evidence 
is found of another personality than that of 
the medium. The main question is the gen- 
uineness of telekinesis itself. 

It is therefore important to note that not 
only did the phenomena I am about to de- 
scribe take place either in broad daylight or 
in sufficient artificial light to enable me to 
detect any fraud, had such been attempted, 
but there w^ere no paid or professional medi- 
ums present, and the sittings were held in any 
place I selected and even in my own house; 
notes were taken at the time of the sittings, or 
shortly after. 

The first case I will cite occurred when I 
was writing an article giving reasons for the 
opinion expressed in a paper I read before 
the British Association in 1876, that where 
fraud did not explain these physical pheno- 
mena, and the observers were men of unim- 
peachable integrity and competence, such as 
Sir W. Crookes and Professor De Morgan, 
the witnesses thought they saw what they 
describe, owing to mal-observation or some 
hallucination of the senses such as occurs in 
incipient hypnosis. In fact I began the whole 
investigation of these phenomena convinced 
that this was their true explanation, and it 



38 Chapter IV 

was not until after stretching this hypothesis 
to illegitimate lengths that I found the actual 
facts completely shattered my theory. 

An English solicitor of high standing, 
Mr. C, had taken for the summer season the 
suburban residence of a friend of mine, not 
far from my own house in Kingstown, Co. 
Dublin. Upon making Mr. C.'s acquaintance 
I was surprised to find that he had in his 
own family what appeared to be spiritualistic 
phenomena then and there going on. They 
were not spiritualists and were puzzled and 
somewhat annoyed by the raps and other 
inexplicable noises that frequently occurred 
when their daughter Florrie was present — a 
frank, intelligent child at that time about 
ten years old. They naturally thought their 
young daughter was playing some childish 
tricks, but they soon convinced themselves this 
was impossible. The governess complained 
of rappings in different parts of the school 
room whenever Florrie was idle, and the 
music mistress asserted that often loud raps 
would come inside the piano, when Florrie 
was listlessly playing her scales. 

Mr. and Mrs. C. gladly acceded to my 
request for a personal investigation, and I 
came the next day after breakfast. It was 
10 o'clock and a bright summer morning — 
Mr. and Mrs. C. with Florrie and myself, no 
one else present, sat at a large dining table, 



Physical Phenomena 39 

with no cloth on, and the French windows 
opening on to the lawn, let in a flood of 
sunlight, so that the sitter's hands and feet 
could be perfectly well seen. A scraping 
sound was soon heard, then raps, sometimes 
on the table, sometimes on the backs of our 
chairs. Florrie's hand and feet were closely 
watched, they were absolutely motionless 
when the sounds, which rapidly grew in loud- 
ness, were heard. The noise was exactly 
such as would be made by hammering small 
nails into the floor, and my first thought was 
that some carpenters were in the room above 
or below, but on examination no one was 
there. We found the raps grew in intensity 
when a merry song w^as struck up, or music 
was played; the raps in a most amusing way 
keeping time with the music, occasionally 
changing to a loud rhythmic scraping, as if 
the bow of a 'cello were drawn on a piece of 
wood. Again and again I placed my ear on 
the very spot whence this rough fiddling 
appeared to proceed and felt distinctly the 
rhythmic vibration going on in the table, but 
no tangible cause was visible either above or 
below the table. 

Doubts have been suggested as to the possi- 
bility of localising sounds; with some kinds 
of sounds this is difficult, but direct experi- 
ments which I made for this purpose showed 
that when blindfolded most people can pretty 



40 Chapter IF 

accurately locate the position of sounds such 
as I heard on this occasion. 

Sometimes the raps travelled away and 
were heard in different parts of the room out 
of reach of anyone present. On one occasion 
I asked for the raps to come on a small table 
near me, which Florrie was not touching, 
they did so; I then placed one of my hands 
on the upper and the other on the under sur- 
face of the table, and in this position I felt 
the slight jarring made by the raps on the 
part of the table enclosed between my hands. 
It made no difference whether Florrie and I 
were alone in the room, as was often the case, 
or other observers were called in. This latter 
was done occasionally when the raps were go- 
ing on, to test my hallucination theory, but 
everyone heard the sounds. 

The alphabet was slowly repeated and 
questions were answered by the unseen in- 
telligence giving a rap when the right letter 
was arrived at. In this way we were told 
the communicator was a lad named 'Walter 
Hussey,' and Mrs. C. later on told me that 
frequently when she went to her child's bed- 
room to say good-night to her daughter, she 
heard raps going on and Florrie having an 
animated conversation with her invisible com- 
panion, the alphabet being rapidly spelt over 
and raps occurring at the right letters. I took 
down some of the answers obtained by means 



Physical Phenomena ^i 

of the alphabet, they were just such as the 
child herself would have given, merry and 
meaningless, the unseen intelligence corre- 
sponded to that of the child and to my surprise 
the spelling was also that of the child! For 
upon asking Florrie to write down some words 
that occurred in the messages, the same child- 
ish mis-spelling occurred. 

Of course the sceptic will say the whole 
thing was due to a clever child, who enjoyed 
bamboozling a professor. The sceptic is 
quite welcome to hold this opinion if it pleases 
him. ' All I can say is that after some weeks 
searching investigation every theory pro- 
pounded by myself and by sceptical friends — 
some of whom ^ were allowed to join in the 
enquiry — caused me and my friends likewise, 
to abandon all preconceived theories of fraud 
and illusion and mal-observation. The pheno- 
mena were inexplicable except on the suppo- 
sition of an unseen intelligence like or actually 
that of the child. But the force that was 
sometimes exerted far exceeded that which 
the child could exert. Movements of furni- 
ture occasionally took place. On one occasion 
in full sunlight when seated with Mr. and 
Mrs. C. and Florrie at the large mahogany 
dining table, big enough to seat twelve at 
dinner, all our fingers visibly resting on the 
top of the table, suddenly three legs of the 
table deliberately rose off the floor to a height 



42 Chapter IV 

sufficient to enable me to put my foot beneath 
the castors. Let anyone try to imitate this 
by using all the muscular force he possesses, 
and he will find, as I did, that even allowing 
the hands to grasp the table, which those 
present did not attempt to do, the feat can only 
be done with difficulty and practice by a strong 
man. 

To test a favourite anatomical theory that 
the raps were due to a trick which the medium 
might have acquired of slipping the toe or 
knee joints partially in and out with a click, 
I asked Florrie to put her hands flat against the 
wall and to see whether, when I did the same, 
she could stretch out her feet away from the 
wall as far as I could, pretending it was a new 
game between us. When we were both in 
this strained position, and any muscular move- 
ment of the limbs impossible, I asked 'Wal- 
ter' if he was amused at our game; instantly 
a brisk pattering of raps came in the room, 
the child's hands and feet being absolutely 
motionless, while no one but Florrie and my- 
self were present in the room. Trickery by 
the servants was out of the question, in fact 
Mr. C. told me that when he was out of doors 
with his daughter he had obtained raps on the 
handle of his umbrella. 

After the family had returned to England 
Mrs. C. informed me that the phenomena died 
away and they were very glad as they feared 



Physical Phenomena 43 

the health of their daughter might have suf- 
fered, but so far no injury whatever had 
occurred. "Of the genuineness of the pheno- 
mena (Mrs. C. wrote) I never had the slight- 
est doubt, then or now." The manifestations, 
they informed me, were often more violent 
than any I had witnessed and always of a 
meaningless or frivolous nature. 

Let me now narrate a second case where 
the medium was an adult, a lady who lived 
with the family of her cousin, a leading 
photographer in Dublin. I will call her 
Miss L. ; needless to say she was neither a 
paid nor a professional medium, and I was 
greatly indebted to Mr. and Miss L. for giv- 
ing me every opportunity to investigate the 
phenomena, often at considerable inconveni- 
ence to themselves. None of the sittings were 
in darkness; when held in the evening there 
was sufficient gas light to enable me to read 
small print, and of course to see any move- 
ment on the part of those present. On one 
occasion, only Mr. L., Miss L. and myself 
being present, loud raps which quite startled 
me, were given on the table at which we sat, 
and when I asked the unseen visitor to rap 
the number of fingers I held open, my hand 
being held out of sight and the opened fingers 
unseen by anyone, the correct number was 
rapped out; this was done twice. Knocks 



44 Chapter IV 

came in answer to my request, when we all 
removed our hands and withdrew a short dis- 
tance from the table. 

Whilst the hands and feet of all were clearly 
visible and no one touching the table it sidled 
about in an uneasy manner. It was a four- 
legged table, some 4 feet square and heavy. 
In obedience to my request, first the two legs 
nearest me and then the two hinder legs rose 
8 or 10 inches completely off the ground and 
thus remained a few moments; not a person 
touched the table the whole time. I with- 
drew my chair further, and the table then 
moved towards me, — Mr. and Miss L. not 
touching the table at all,— finally the table 
came up to the arm chair in which I sat and 
imprisoned me in my seat. When thus under 
my very nose the table rose repeatedly, and 
enabled me to be perfectly sure, by the 
evidence of touch, that it was quite off the 
ground and that no human being had any part 
in this or the other movements. To suppose 
that the table was moved by invisible and 
non-existent threads, worked by an imaginary 
accomplice, who must have floated in the air 
unseen, is a conjecture which sceptics are at 
liberty to make if they choose. 

Subsequently at my request Mr. and Miss L. 
came to my house at Kingstown, which they 
had never visited before, and we three had 
a sitting in the afternoon, with plenty of 



Physical Phenomena 45 

daylight enabling me to see everything in the 
room. After a short time raps, varying from 
faint ticks to loud percussive sounds, were 
heard, not muffled sounds as would be made 
by the feet in the carpeted room, but clear 
and distinct, and not the slightest movement 
of the hands or feet of any of the three present 
could be seen. Suddenly, the tips of our 
fingers only being on the table, the heavy 
loo table at which we sat began a series of 
prancing movements; so violently did the 
claws of the table strike the floor that I had 
to stop the performance fearing for the safety 
of the chandelier in the room below. I tried 
to imitate this movement afterwards and found 
it could only be done by a person using both 
hands and all his strength. 

As in the previous case the messages that 
were spelt out were just such as the medium, 
who w^as a Methodist, would have given, 
serious and pious platitudes. 

The foregoing were among my earliest 
experiences of the physical phenomena of 
Spiritualism, and taken along with my later 
experience and the evidence of others to which 
I will refer presently, left no shadow of doubt 
on my mind of the super-normal character 
of the manifestations. I w^ill now briefly nar- 
rate my latest experience v/hich occurred only 
a few months ago, Christmas 19 15. 



46 Chapter IV 

In the following case I was indebted for 
my introduction to the sitting to Dr. Crawford 
■ — lecturer on Mechanical Engineering at the 
Queen's University and at the Technical 
College, Belfast, a trained scientific man hold- 
ing the D.Sc. degree. Dr. Crawford had for 
some months been investigating the remark- 
able physical phenomena that occurred in a 
small family circle of highly respectable and 
intelligent working people in Belfast. The 
medium was the eldest daugh.Mr of the family, 
a girl, Kathleen, of some 17 years. The 
family had become interested in Spiritualism 
and had sat regularly one or two evenings a 
week for a year or more, to see if they could 
obtain any evidence of survival after bodily 
death. They made a sort of religious cere- 
mony of their sittings, always opening with 
prayer and hymns, and when at last pheno- 
mena came, their unseen visitors were greeted 
with delight and respect. Obviously they 
were uncritical, simple, honest, kind hearted 
people; Dr. Crawford having assured himself 
they had no pecuniary or other motive such as 
notoriety to gain, v/as allowed and indeed 
welcomed to make a searching and critical 
investigation. This he did, devising elaborate 
and ingenious apparatus to test the pheno- 
mena, which he is describing in a work he is 
about to publish. Inter alia he found that 
the weight of the medium increased as the 



Physical Phenomena 47 

amount of the weight of the table or other 
object which was levitated had decreased. 

I was permitted to have an evening sitting 
with the family, Dr. Crawford accompanying 
me. We sat outside the small family circle; 
the room was illuminated with a bright gas 
flame burning in a lantern, with a large red 
glass window, on the mantelpiece. The room 
was small and as our eyes got accustomed to 
the light we could see all the sitters clearly. 
They sat rour '' a small table with hands 
ioined together, but no one touching the table. 
Very soon knocks came and messages were 
spelt out as one of us repeated the alphabet 
aloud. Suddenly the knocks increased in 
violence, and being encouraged, a tremendous 
bang came which shook the room and re- 
sembled the blow of a sledge hammer on an 
anvil. A tin trumpet which had been placed 
below the table now poked out its smaller end 
close under the top of the table near where 
I was sitting. I was allowed to try and catch 
it, but it dodged all my attempts in the most 
amusing way, the medium on the opposite side 
sat perfectly still, while at my request all held 
up their joined hands so that I could see no 
one was touching the trumpet, as it played 
peep-bo with me. Sounds like the sawing of 
wood, the bouncing of a ball and other noises 
occurred, which were inexplicable. 

Then the table began to rise from the floor 



48 Chapter IV. 

'some 18 inches and remained so suspended 
and quite level. I was allowed to go up to 
the table and saw clearly no one was touching 
it, a clear space separating the sitters from 
the table. I tried to press the table down, 
and though I exerted all my strength could 
not do so; then I climbed up on the table and 
sat on it, my feet off the floor, when I was 
swayed to and fro and finally tipped off. The 
table of its own accord now turned upside 
down, no one touching it, and I tried to lift 
it off the ground, but it could not be stirred, 
it appeared screwed down to the floor. At 
my request all the sitters' clasped hands had 
been kept raised above their heads, and I 
could see that no one was touching the table; 
— when I desisted from trying to lift the in- 
verted table from the floor, it righted itself 
again of its own accord, no one helping it. 
Numerous sounds displaying an amused in- 
telligence then came, and after each individual 
present had been greeted with some farewell 
raps the sitting ended. 

It is difficult to imagine how the cleverest 
conjurer with elaborate apparatus could have 
performed what I have described; here were 
a simple family group of earnest seekers, on 
whose privacy I had intruded and who had 
suffered Dr. Crawford for 6 months or more 
to put them to the greatest inconvenience 
without any remuneration whatever. 



Physical Phenomena 49 

But it is the cumulative force of the evi- 
dence coming from different places and differ- 
end witnesses, some of which will be given in 
the next chapter, that carries conviction. The 
objection as to the foolish and meaningless 
character of the phenomena will be met later, 
here I will only ask my readers to imagine 
how a dumb and invisible visitor coming to 
a house at night would try to attract the 
attention of the inmates; his efforts to com- 
municate would be not unlike the knockings 
and sounds made by these unseen visitants. 
That there is an unseen intelligence behind 
these manifestations is all we can say, but that 
is a tremendous assertion, and if admitted de- 
stroys the whole basis of materialism. 

I am not so foolish as to suppose anything 
I can say will make an appreciable difference 
in public opinion, or that my testimony is 
superior to, or ought to have more weight 
attached to it, than that of several other 
observers. But it will, I hope, lead other 
witnesses to come forward and relate any 
unexceptionable evidence they possess, until 
"we drive the objector into being forced to 
admit the phenomena as inexplicable, at least 
by him, or to accuse the investigators either 
of lying, cheating, or of a blindness or for- 
getfulness incompatible with any intellectual 
condition except absolute idiocy." 

It is true that much of what passes as evi- 



50 Chapter IV 

dence among certain Spiritualists has no claim 
to this distinction, and is only evidence of 
the difficulty of preserving a sound judgment 
and uninterrupted attention when dealing w^ith 
these obscure phenomena. Nor is this to be 
wondered at. When any of us have obtained 
what we deem conclusive proof of some amaz- 
ing occurrence, and are thereby convinced, 
we are all apt to relax the stringency of our in- 
quiry, and accept as corroborative evidence 
what to an unconvinced outsider may seem 
capable of quite a different and more familiar 
explanation. At the outset we all start from 
very much the same level; some, of course, 
are worse observers than others; some jump 
to conclusions too readily, their judgment is 
less valuable; but the uniformity of the laws 
of nature is the common experience of man- 
kind, and the man who tells us his gooseberry 
bush is bearing cucumbers does not expect to 
be believed until he can verify so outrageous a 
statement. 



CHAPTER V 

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA CONTINUED 

"In saying that a marvel is contrary to experience we 
can mean no more than that it is unlike previous exper- 
ience; or rather that it is unlike that portion of experience 
which has been collected, handed down, and sj^stematised 
by competent persons. But this only means that it is 
entirely novel and strange: and the greater the marvel 
the better must be the testimony [on its behalf]." — Henry 
Sidgwick. 

Let us now turn to some of the undeniable 
evidence of similar super-normal phenomena 
that has been obtained by other witnesses. 
In the most searching examination of this 
subject which has ever been undertaken, 
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Litt.D., in a paper 
published in the Proceedings of the Psychical 
Research Society for 1886,' states her own 
conviction that "notwithstanding the absence 
of what may be called crucial evidence for the 
existence of these physical phenomena beyond 
the recognised laws of nature, there is still 
some evidence which ought not to be set 

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. IV, p. 72, et seq. 
51 



52 Chapter V 

aside, and affords a prima facie case for 
further investigation." Mrs. Sidgwick then 
cites in illustration the Count de Gasparin's 
careful experiments with his own family and 
friends on the movement of tables without 
contact, published by him in Paris in 1854; 
also the evidence for similar phenomena ob- 
tained by a committee for the Dialectical 
Society in 1870; Sir W. Crookes experiments 
with D. D. Home, published in the Quarterly 
Journal of Science, "London^ 1874, and the Rev. 
Stainton Moses' account of phenomena occur- 
ring through his own mediumship about the 
same period. 

Mrs. Sidgwick has been unfortunate in 
her own proctracted experience with pro- 
fessional mediums, but nevertheless states "it 
is not because I disbelieve in the psychical 
phonemona of spiritualism, but because I 
think it more probable than not that such 
things occasionally occur, that I am interested 
in estimating the evidence for them." There 
is not a single sceptic in the world who has 
devoted as many hours to this enquiry as 
Mrs. Sidgwick has given years, and I doubt 
if there exists a more competent critical and 
cautious investigator than this distinguished 
lady. Had she been fortunate enough to 
witness what I have described in the previous 
chapter, or to have had any sittings with 
D. D. Home, her opinion, I venture to think, 



Physical Phenomena, continued 53 

would have been not very different from my 
own. 

The London Dialectical Society consisted 
of some well-known professional men, and in 
1870 they published the report of a special 
committee appointed to investigate these so- 
called physical phenomena. They state no 
paid mediums were employed, the psychics 
tested being persons of good social position 
and integrity who had no pecuniary interest 
to serve. The Committee report the frequent 
occurrence of raps showing unseen intelli- 
gence, and the movement of solid objects 
without any visible or known cause. On one 
occasion the committee knelt on chairs placed 
around, and about a foot away from, a large 
mahogany dining table, the hands of each 
person held behind their backs; under these 
conditions in full light distinct movements of 
the table occurred several times and swayed 
about in one direction or another without 
contact or the possibility of contact with any 
person present. Raps also occurred on the 
floor and on the table in answer to request.^ 

This report mentions many other remark- 
able super-normal phenomena, but it is 
needless to go into further detail, for these 
results, and those that I have witnessed, came 
far short of what Sir W. Crookes obtained in 

1 "Report of the Dialectical Society" (Burns & Co., London), 
P- 391. 



54 Chapter V. 

his own laboratory, under the most stringent 
conditions that his unrivalled experimental 
skill could devise. 

Sir Wm. Crookes asserts that his experi-* 
ments demonstrate the occurrence of the fol- 
lowing phenomena inexplicable by any known 
agency: — 

( 1 ) Raps and percussive sounds varying in loudness 
from a mere tick to loud thuds, which appeared to 
be caused by an unseen intelligent operator. 

(2) The movement both of small and light, as well as 
large and heavy, bodies without visible cause or 
the contact of any human being. 

(3) The alteration in the weight of bodies. 

(4) The levitation of heavy objects without contact 
with any person; on three occasions he saw the 
medium, D. D. Home, raised completely ofi the 
ground in good light no one touching him. 

(5) Musical instruments played without human inter- 
vention, and under conditions rendering them im- 
possible to be played by normal means. 

(6) Luminous appearances; more than once he affirms 
that under strict test conditions he has seen a lum- 
inous cloud appear, which condensed into the shape 
of a perfectly formed hand, that presently faded 
away. 

(7) Intelligent messages written by unseen hands, — - 
"direct writing" as it is termed. 

(8) Handling red hot coals and placing the hand in a 
blazing fire without any injury, 

(9) Most astonishing of all, phantom forms and faces 
have appeared, and, under elaborate test conditions 



Physical Phenomena, continued 55 

a materialized and beautiful female figure several 
times appeared, clothed in a white robe, so real that 
not only was its pulse taken but it was repeatedly 
photographed, sometimes by the aid of the electric 
arc light, and on one occasion simultaneously with 
and beside the entranced medium, who was plainer, 
darker, and considerably smaller than the preter- 
natural visitant, the latter coming into and vanish- 
ing from a previously searched, closed, locked room 
in Mr. Crookes' own house. 

Since these almost incredible phenomena 
occurred (many of them witnessed not only 
by Mr. — now Sir Wm. — Crookes' own family, 
but also by other persons) I have been assured 
by Sir William that no subsequent criticism 
has failed to shake his opinion of their super- 
normal character, the elaborate precautions 
he took preventing the possibility of any 
fraud. Moreover, Sir Wm. Crookes in his 
Presidential address to the British Association 
in 1898 had the courage to state in reference 
to these investigations he had nothing to re- 
tract and that he adhered to the statements he 
had published. 

What can be said of these miracles? They 
are so foreign to ordinary experience that one 
naturally thinks the observer was a victim 
of hallucination or of some clever trick. In 
a paper I published jointly with Mr. F. W. 
H. Myers in 1889 we said that on general 
principles the testimony of no single savant, 



5 6 Chapter V 

however eminent, could compel general belief 
in phenomena so incredible, if they remained 
unattested by other trustworthy investigators. 
Now as regards nearly all the phenomena 
described by Sir W. Crookes this additional 
testimony has been forthcoming. 

For example, an able investigator. Professor 
Alexander of Rio de Janeiro, published in the 
"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
Research" for July, 1891, the details of some 
carefully conducted experiments he had made 
which authenticate some of the things attested 
by Sir. Wm. Crookes. In Professor Alex- 
ander's case the medium was one or other of 
two little girls, daughters of a friend of his, 
and here, not only did the movement of heavy 
objects by unseen intelligences occur, but 
"direct writing," under test conditions, took 
place in full lamplight; an unseen hand wrote 
messages on a slate, touched by the child's 
fingers only, the writing being far superior 
in execution to the childish caligraphy of the 
medium. Then luminous appearances pre- 
sented themselves, at first a flitting, playful 
light, then growing in definiteness till a form 
was said to be seen by the little mediums, 
though not by others present. The clairvoy- 
ance was apparently shared by a dog, who 
gazed upward and barked at the figure, and 
at another time shared by a baby, who, gazing 
with astonishment, and pointing to an unseen 



Physical Phenomena, continued 57 

figure, called, "Man, man," and at last said, 
"AH gone!" Unseen hands were felt by 
all the sitters, caressing those present, and 
eventually the imprint of a tiny baby foot, 
far smaller than that belonging to any of the 
sitters present, was obtained on a school slate, 
over which a coating of flour had been spread. 
This brief narrative gives an imperfect de- 
scription of the phenomena obtained and the 
precautions taken, by Professor Alexander, 
but it is enough to show that independent and 
able investigators in different parts of the 
world, with different psychics, have obtained 
similar extraordinary results/ 

By far the most remarkable psychic or 
'medium,' whose powers have ever been in- 
vestigated was Mr. D. D. Home, with whom 
many of Sir W. Crookes' experiments were 
made. Both Mr. F. W. H. Myers and myself 
devoted considerable time to examining the 
evidence on behalf of his super-normal gifts, 
and also the charges of fraud brought against 
him; we found plenty of rumours of trickery 

1 The question whether the whole of the phenomena may not be 
explained away by ascribing to every witness gross and per- 
sistent exaggeration may be dismissed, as it cannot be seriously 
maintained; neither is it possible to sustain an explanation 
founded on a system of laborious and disinterested deception, 
though isolated cases of this kind are known. Professor Sidgwick 
has dealt with this point ("Journal of the Society of Psychical 
Research," July, 1894), and, moreover, such actors not only 
shrink from scientific scrutiny, but sooner or later get tired of 
their motiveless deception, or their- fraud comes to light. 



58 Chapter V 

but no conviction of fraud. Robert Brown- 
ing's poem "Sludge the Medium," which was 
supposed to express his opinion about Home, 
may possibly have been written to discount 
Mrs. Barrett Browning's enthusiastic con- 
version to Spiritualism. Mr. Myers knew 
Browning personally, and he asked the poet 
what foundation there was for his bad opin- 
ion of Home; Browning replied that he once 
heard a lady (since dead) tell him that another 
lady, also deceased, told her, that Home was 
once found in the act of experimenting with 
phosphorus in order to produce 'spirit lights.' 
Of this third hand story we could find no 
written or any other confirmation whatever, 
it was an old story when Browning heard it, 
and probably originated, — like other gossip 
we have traced to its source, — in someone 
saying "Home must have produced these 
spirit lights with phosphorized oil rubbed on 
his hands," a pure assumption for which we 
could not find a particle of evidence.^ 

1 Another charge against Home's character was that he had by 
fraudulent means persuaded a Mrs. Lyon to leave him her 
property, a case which led to litigation that went against Home. 
This case we submitted to a high legal expert, who wrote that 
whether it was to Home's discredit or not rests on one's belief 
in the reality of the communications purporting to come from 
Mrs. Lyon's deceased husband, who urged the gift, Mr. W. M. 
Wilkinson, an eminent and upright lawyer, and other witnesses 
in the case declared that Mrs. Lyon made the gift to Home of 
her own free will, and independent of any unfair influence from 
Home. But in any case this litigation has no bearing on the 
reality of Home's psychic powers. 



Physical Phenomena, continued 59 

In fact, Home courted the fullest enquiry, 
and made no objection to the stringent tests 
often imposed. I quite agree with what Sir 
William Crookes has said, though I never had 
the opportunity of meeting Home: — 

"I think It is a cruel thing that a man like D. D. 
Home, gifted with such extraordinary powers, and al- 
ways willing, nay, anxious, to place himself at the dis- 
posal of men of science for investigation, should have 
lived so many years in London, and with one or two 
exceptions no one of weight in the scientific world should 
have thought it worth while to look into the truth or 
falsity of things which were being talked about in so- 
ciety on all sides. To those who knew him Home was 
one of the most lovable of men, and his perfect genuine- 
ness and uprightness were beyond suspicion." 

In the report which Mr. Myers and the 
present writer published in the "Journal of 
the Society for Psychical Research" for July, 
1889, we gave several first-hand accounts of 
the marvellous phenomena witnessed by our 
informants in the presence of Home. 

I will first quote the evidence given to me 
by my friends the late General and Mrs. 
Boldero, neither of whom were Spiritualists. 
Notes of what took place had been written 
down by my friends and the evidence was 
given to me verbally and independently by 



6o Chapter V 

each observer. Home had been staying with 
the late Lord Dunraven, — who published for 
})rivate circulation a small book giving an 
account of the marvellous phenomena he had 
witnessed in Home's presence, — and had 
never before visited the house where General, 
then Colonel, Boldero was staying in Scotland, 
where he held a high military appointment. 
Here is the account given to me by General 
Boldero: — 

"It was at the end of February, 1870, that Home 
came to visit me by invitation, at my house in Coupar, 
Fife. He arrived immediately before dinner, and after 
dinner we, Mrs. Boldero, Home, and myself, sat in the 
drawing-room for any manifestations that might occur. 
The room was quite light, the gas being lighted, and a 
bright fire burning. Home sat with his back to the 
fire, at a small table, with a cloth on it. I was opposite 
to him, and Mrs. Boldero was on his right hand. A 
piano and Mrs. Boldero's harp were at the end of the 
drawing-room some 10 feet or 12 feet away. 

"Almost immediately some remarkable manifestations 
occurred; in a little while the table moved towards the 
piano. I saw a hand come out on my side from under 
the table, pushing out the tablecloth and striking notes 
on the piano. Afterwards I saw a whole hand as far 
as the wrist appear without the tablecloth and strike the 
notes, playing some chords on the piano. At this time 
Home was some distance off, and it was physically im- 
possible for him to have struck the piano. It was 
equally impossible for him to have used his foot for the 



Physical Phenomena, continued 6i 

purpose. I was perfectly confident at the time and am 
now that trickery on the part of Home was out of the 
question. After that some chords were faintly struck 
on the harp standing immediately behind me. We asked 
for them to play louder, and a reply came by raps, 'We 
have not power.' Then voices were heard speaking to- 
gether in the room, two different persons, judging from 
the intonation. We could not make out the words 
spoken as Home persisted in speaking to us all the time. 
We remonstrated with him for speaking, and he replied, 
'I spoke purposely that you might be convinced the 
voices were not due to any ventriloquism on my part, 
as this is impossible when anyone is speaking in his 
natural voice.' Home's voice was quite unlike that of 
the voices heard in the air." 



The differences and similarities in the 
account given by husband and wife are 
instructive. On my reading to him the fol- 
lowing account given me by Mrs. Boldero, the 
General said that where there was a difference 
his wife's account was probably the more 
correct. Mrs. Boldero said: — 

"On February 28th, 1 870, Home arrived at our 
house shortly before dinner. After dinner we agreed 
to sit in the drawing-room at a square card-table near 
the fire. In a few minutes, a cold draught of air was 
felt on our hands and knockings occurred. Several 
messages of no consequence came, questions being asked 
and answered. I was exhorted to pray more. A rust- 
ling of dresses was heard, as of a stiff silk dress in the 



62 Chapter V 

room. [General Boldero recollects this also.] My gold 
bracelet was unclasped whilst my hands were on the 
table, and fell upon the floor. [General Boldero agrees 
to this.] My dress was pulled several times. I think I 
asked if the piano could be played; it stood at least I2 
feet or 14 feet away from us. Almost at once the soft- 
est music sounded. I went up to the piano and opened 
it. I then saw the keys depressed, but no one playing. 
I stood by its side and watched it, hearing the most 
lovely chords; the keys seemed to be struck by some 
invisible hands; all this time Home was far distant 
from the piano. Then a faint sound was heard upon 
my harp, as of the wind blowing over its strings. I 
asked if it could be played louder ; an answer came, there 
was insufficient power. 

"Later on in the evening, we distinctly heard two 
voices talking together in the room; the voices appeared 
to come from opposite corners, near the ceiling, and 
apparently proceeded from a man and child, but we 
could not distinguish the words. They sounded far 
ofE. Home was talking the whole time the voices were 
heard, and gave as his reason that he might not be ac- 
cused of ventriloquism. During the whole of this 
seance, the whole room seemed to be alive with some- 
thing, and I remember thinking that no manifestation 
would surprise me, feeling that the power present could 
produce anything. Home himself remarked that he 
had rarely had so satisfactory a seance. Throughout, 
Home seemed to be intensely, and very genuinely, in- 
terested in the whole seance. I am perfectly sure that 
Home could not possibly have played the piano him- 
self; his touching it was wholly out of the question. 
General Boldero saw a hand playing on the piano, but 
I did not see this." 



Physical Phenomena, continued 63 

General Boldero also informed me that 
at another seance with Home he saw a large 
round table, on the top of which the sitters' 
hands were placed, rise completely off the 
ground to a height as great as the upstretched 
arms of the sitters would allow and then the 
table gently descended. At another time 
the table, on which were glasses and a lamp, 
tilted to such an angle that ordinarily every- 
thing would have fallen off, but they remained 
undisturbed. A similar incident has been 
witnessed at other places by other persons; 
thus the Rector of Edmonthorpe, Rutland, 
the late Rev. H. Douglas, a man of acute and 
scholarly mind and keen intelligence, writes 
that at a sitting with Home in Lady Poulett's 
house in London: "We all saw the supper 
table on which there v/as a quantity of glass 
and china full of good things, rise to an angle 
of 45 degrees, I should say, without anything 
slipping in the least, and then it relapsed to 
its normal position." My friends the late 
Lord and Lady Mount Temple were present 
on this occasion and they confirmed not only 
the story, but gave me an account of many 
other weird phenomena they had witnessed 
with Home. 

The late Major-General Drayson, R.E., 
gave me in writing some of his experiences 
with Home: he said he had had more than 
50 sittings with Home, and though at Urst 



64 Chapter V 

absolutely incredulous, was soon convinced of 
the genuineness of the amazing phenomena 
he had witnessed, as Home gave him every 
opportunity for close investigation. General 
Drayson says: "I have seen tables-, chairs, 
boxes, etc., suddenly rise in the air, or move 
from distant parts of the room to positions 
close beside me; I have heard allocked piano 
in my own house play a piece of music. I 
have seen in Home's presence, at the late 
Sir W. Gomm's house, an accordion carried 
round the room, playing a tune when no 
visible hand held it." General Drayson re- 
lates many other things he has witnessed and 
adds, "it is of course impossible to give in 
detail all circumstances which convinced me 
that imposition or delusion was impossible, — 
the seances being mostly in my own house, — 
and finally led me to abandon my former be- 
lief in materialism." 

It would be wearisome to quote further 
from the abundant first-hand evidence of 
Home's powers attested by men of probity 
and intelligence. There are however two or 
three extraordinary phenomena which Home 
occasionally exhibited that are worthy of more 
than a passing notice; these will be discussed 
in the next chapter. 

This little book would extend beyond its 
limits if I were to quote even selections from 
the mass of first-hand evidence given by 



Physical Phenomena, continued 65 

numerous critical observers of these physical 
phenomena, and obtained through trust- 
worthy mediums both in England and abroad. 
I would refer specially to the able work of 
Mr. Maxwell on meta-psychical phenomena 
for further evidence. Before closing this 
chapter it is desirable to refer to another and 
less satisfactory aspect of this subject as illu- 
strated by the psychic Eusapia Paladino, a 
paid professional medium of a very different 
and much lower type than D. D. Home. 

In 1894 Sir Oliver Lodge read a paper 
before the Society for Psychical Research 
in which he described the phenomena that 
took place in his presence, and that of Pro- 
fessor Charles Richet of Paris, when Eusapia 
was secluded in a small island in the Mediter- 
ranean (lie Roubaud) on which Professor 
Richet had a summer residence. After a 
searching and prolonged investigation, both 
of these savants were convinced of the gen- 
uineness of the phenomena that occurred, and 
Sir Oliver published the following summary 
of the results witnessed : — 

"The things for which I wish specially to vouch, as 
being the most easily and securely observed, and as 
being amply sufficient in themselves to establish a 
scientifically unrecognised truth, are (always under 
conditions such as to prevent normal action on the 
part of the medium) : — 



66 Chapter V 

(i) The movements of a distant chair, visible in the 
moonlight, under circumstances such as to satisfy me 
that there w^as no direct mechanical connection. 

(2) The distinct and persistent bulging and visible 
movement of a v^^indovv-curtain in absence of wind or 
other ostensible cause. 

(3) The winding-up and locomotion of the un- 
touched chalet. [A musical cigar-box, shaped like a 
chalet.] 

(4) The sounding of the notes of the untouched 
accordion and piano. 

(5) The turning of the k&y on the inside of the 
sitting-room door, Its removal on to the table, and 
subsequent replacement In door. 

(6) The audible movements and gradual inversion 
of an untouched heavy table, situated behind the 
medium and out of the circle; and the finding it In- 
verted afterwards. 

(7) The visible raising of a heavy table under con- 
ditions In which It would be ordinarily Impossible to 
raise it. 

(8) The appearance of blue marks on a surface 
previously blank, without ostensible means of writing. 

(9) The grasplngs, pattings, and clutchings of my 
head and arms, and back, while the head, and hands, 
and feet of the medium were under com.plete control 
and nowhere near the places touched."^ 

It is needless to add that the observers satis- 
fied themselves that no other person had any 
part in these occurrences. 

Subsequently, a series of experiments were 

1 "Journal of the S. P. R.," Vol. VI, November, 1894, p. 310. 



Physical Phenomena, continued 67 

made with Eusapia at Cambridge in 1895, 
in which Dr. Hodgson, Professor Hy. Sidg- 
wick, Mr. Myers (all alas now deceased), and 
others took part, the result being that the in- 
vestigators found what seemed to them clear 
evidence of trickery on the part of the 
medium. Still further experiments a little 
later on by Professor Richet and Mr. Myers, 
after taking special precautions against fraud, 
led to their conviction that Eusapia had un- 
questionably super-normal powers. She v/as 
further critically and independently tested by 
several notable scientific men in Italy, — in- 
cluding the eminent criminologist Professor 
Lombroso, and the neurologist Professor 
Morselli of Genoa; these and other compe- 
tent investigators were convinced of the gen- 
uineness of the extraordinary phenomena they 
witnessed. Finally, three members of the 
Society for Psychical Research specially 
qualified to detect imposture, were com- 
missioned by the Society to investigate this 
notorious medium, and they unanimously re- 
ported in favour of the genuineness of the 
supernormal phenomena they obtained. 

Nevertheless, although Eusapia appears to 
have these super-normal powers, she is a 
medium of a low moral type, who has been 
convicted of imposture both in England and 
America and with whom therefore I should 
not care to have any sittings. My reason 



68 Chapter V 

for referring to her at all is the notoriety 
she has gained, and the instructive psycho- 
logical and moral considerations her career 
affords. 

I will only add that in fairness to Eusapia, 
and also in corroboration of Sir Oliver Lodge's 
original report, I have given in Appendix C 
a more detailed account of the favourable re- 
sults obtained through her mediumship by the 
Italian investigators and others, together vs^ith 
some remarks on this case which is, I fear, 
too often typical of paid professional mediums 
who sit for physical phenomena. 



CHAPTER VI 

LEVITATION AND IMPUNITY TO 
FIRE 

"There is nothing that need hinder Science from dealing 
successfully with a world in which personal forces are the 
starting point of new facts. . . . The systematic denial 
on Science's part of personality as a condition of events 
. . . may conceivably prove to be the very defect that 
our descendants will be most surprised at in our own 
boasted Science." — Professor W , James. 

Among the many amazing phenomena which 
numerous credible, and indeed eminent, 
witnesses assert that they have seen in 
connection with the medium D. D. Home, 
is that of his levitation or floating in the air, 
like the miracle recorded of St. Teresa and 
others in still more remote times. As late as 
1760, Lord Elcho states that he heard, when 
in Rome, witnesses swear to the levitation 
of a holy man about to be canonized. The 
same fact is recorded, Mr. A. Lang tells us, in 
Buddhist and Neoplatonic writings and later 
among the Red Indians, and in Tonquin, 
where in 1730 a Jesuit priest asserted he saw 
this phenomenon, which he describes. 

69 



70 Chapter VI 

In 1871 the Master of Lindsay (the late 
Lord Crawford and Balcarres, F.R.S.) gave 
the following evidence, w^hich was corrobo- 
rated by the two other spectators, the late Earl 
of Dunraven (then Lord Adare) and Captain 
Wynne : — 

"I was sitting on December i6th, 1868, in Lord 
Adare's rooms in Ashley Place, London, S.W., with 
Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a cousin of his. Dur- 
ing the sitting, Mr. Home went into a trance, and in 
that state was carried out of the window in the room 
next to where we were, and was brought in at our win- 
dow. The distance between the windows was about 
seven feet six inches, and there was not the slightest 
foothold between them, nor was there more than a 
twelve-inch projection to each window, which served 
as a ledge to put flowers on. We heard the window in 
the next room lifted up, and almost immediately after 
we saw Home floating in the air outside our window. 
The moon was shining full into the room; my back 
was to the light, and I saw the shadow on the wall of 
the window sill, and Home's feet about six inches above 
it. He remained in this position for a few seconds, then 
raised the window and glided into the room feet fore- 
most and sat down. 

"Lord Adare then went into the next room to look 
at the window from which he had been carried. It 
was raised about eighteen inches; and he expressed his 
wonder how Mr. Home had been taken through so 
narrow an aperture. Home said, still entranced, 'I 
will show you,' and then with his back to the window 
he leaned back and was shot out of the aperture, head 



Levitation 71 

first, with the body rigid, and then returned quite 
quietly. The window is about seventy feet from the 
ground. The hypothesis of a mechanical arrangement 
of ropes or supports outside has been suggested, but 
does not cover the facts as described." 



In an article in the "Contemporary Review" 
for January, 1876, Dr. Carpenter, the eminent 
physiologist, commenting on the foregoing 
says it illustrates how differently a believer 
and a sceptic view the same incident: "A 
whole party of believers will say they saw 
Mr. Home float out of one window and in at 
another, while a single honest sceptic declares 
Mr. Home was sitting in his chair all the 
time." As the only person present whose 
testimony was not published was Captain 
Wynne he was written to, and when asked if 
he had contradicted Lord Crawford's state- 
ment, he replied: "The fact of Mr. Home 
having gone out of one window and in at 
another I can swear to : anyone who knows me 
would not for a moment say I was a victim to 
hallucination or any other humbug of the 
kind." Like many other controversialists Dr. 
Carpenter drev\^ on his imagination for his 
facts in order to support his case. 

One naturally supposes, however, that the 
witnesses must have been mistaken, or suffer- 
ing from some excitement or hallucination of 
the senses. But it is not easy to suppose 



72 Chapter VI 

that three educated men, to whom nothing 
was said beforehand of what they might ex- 
pect to see, could all have been hallucinated 
exactly in the same way: for the accounts 
given by each are alike. Nor is it easy to 
believe that the numerous witnesses of the 
levitation of saints and others in past times 
and in diff^erent countries, knowing nothing 
of each other, were likewise all hallucinated; 
nor, as Mr. A. Lang says, is it "very easy 
to hold that a belief— to which the collective 
evidence is so large and universal, as the 
belief in levitation, — was caused by a series 
of saints, sorcerers and others, thrusting their 
head and shoulders out of a window where 
the observers could not see them as one sceptic 
has suggested." 

Another singular phenomenon reported in 
connection with Home, as bizarre as it is 
unaccountable, is the enormous elongation 
of his body, which sometimes occurred when 
he was in a trance. The numerous witnesses 
to this took every precaution to prevent them- 
selves being deceived and they are unanimous 
in their statement that this amazing pheno- 
menon actually occurred. My friend the late 
General Boldero, when Home was staying 
with him in Scotland, saw this occur several 
times, took exact measurements and assured 
me that neither deception nor hallucination 



Levitation 73 

were possible. The Neo-platonists report that 
a similar thing occurred in their day to certain 
'possessed' men. 

Bewildering and inconceivable as were 
some of the phenomena associated with 
Home's mediumship they were not all unpar- 
alleled. For the Rev. Stainton Moses to 
whom I have already referred, experienced 
levitation no less than ten times. Of Mr. 
Moses' high character, of his sanity and prob- 
ity, Mr. W. H. Myers says, "neither I myself, 
nor so far as I know any person acquainted 
with Mr. Moses, has ever entertained a 
doubt." I knew Mr. Moses personally for 
many years, and like other of his friends, I be- 
lieve he was wholly incapable of deceit. Mr. 
Sergeant Cox, not himself a Spiritualist, re- 
lates that on one occasion when Mr. Moses was 
in his house, in broad daylight a large, very 
heavy mahogany dining table, — which re- 
quired the effort of two strong men to move, — 
suddenly and violently rocked to and fro, then 
it rose, or tilted up, several inches from the 
floor, first on one side and then on the other. 

Frequent loud rappings also came upon the 
table, on which there was no cloth, and the 
light fell under it so that they could see no 
one was concealed beneath the table. In 
fact Sergeant Cox and Mr. Moses were the 
only persons present in the room, they were 
both standing some two feet distant from the 



74 Chapter VI 

table, one on each side of it, their hands not 
touching the table but held some 8 inches 
over it. The whole incident was published 
by Sergeant Cox, and described by him to 
Mr. Fred. Myers, whose detailed report of the 
marvels that occurred throudi Mr. S. Moses' 
mediumship is worth careful perusal.^ 

On another occasion, when Mr. Moses was 
in a friend's house, a child's organ on the table 
was lifted up, and floated round the room, 
playing all the time by some invisible agency. 
The chair on which Mr. Moses sat was sud- 
denly drawn across the room, turned round so 
as to face the wall, no one touching the chair; 
then, Mr. Moses himself, by the same invisible 
agency, was steadily lifted up from the chair 
and raised till his head was near the ceiling; 
as he was close to the wall he made a pencil 
mark on it, level with his chest; he was then 
lowered into his chair again; the height of 
the mark when measured was found to be over 
six feet from the floor. All the facts were 
noted at the time, and even more striking cases 
of his levitation are described; Mr. Moses 
discouraged these manifestations which how- 
ever continued for some time. 

To return to Home, like the youths in the 
Babylonian fiery furnace, Home in his trance 

1 "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. IX, pp. 245-352. 



Impunity to Fire 75 

was uninjured by fire. Here I will quote Mr. 
A. Lang, who has given much attention to 
the subject of the *Fire-walk' : — 

"Many persons in many ages, are said to have 
handled or walked through fire, not only without suf- 
fering pain, but without lesion of the skin. lamblichus 
mentions this as among the peculiarities of his 'pos- 
sessed' men; and in 'Modern Mythology' (1897) I have 
collected first-hand evidence for the feat in classical 
times, and in India, Figi, Bulgaria, Trinidad, the Straits 
Settlements, and many other places. The evidence is 
that of travellers, officials, missionaries, and others, and 
is backed (for what photographic testimony is worth) 
by photographs of the performance. To hold glowing 
coals in his hand, and to communicate the power of 
doing so to others, was in Home's repertoire. Lord 
Crawford saw it done on eight occasions, and himself 
received from Home's hand the glowing coal unharmed. 
A friend of my own, however, still bears the blister of 
the hurt received in the process. Sir W. Crooke's evi- 
dence follows: — 

"At Mr. Home's request, whilst he was entranced I 
went with him to the fireplace in the back drawing- 
room. He [the influence controlling Home] said : *We 
want you to notice particularly what Dan [i.e. Home] 
is doing.' Accordingly I stood close to the fire, and 
stooped down to it when he put his hands in. . . . 
Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the 
air two or three times, held it above his head, and then 
folded it up and laid it on his hand like a cushion. Put- 
ting his other hand into the fire, he took out a large 
lump of cinder, red-hot at the lower part, and placed 



76 Chapter VI 

the red part on the handkerchief. Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances it would have been in a blaze. In about 
half a minute he took it off the handkerchief with his 
hand, saying, 'As the power is not strong, if we leave the 
coal longer it will burn.' He then put it on his hand, 
and brought it to the table in the front room, where 
all but myself had remained seated." 

Not only have we Sir "W. Crookes' evidence, 
but a former President of the Royal Society, 
the late Sir W. Huggins, O.M., witnessed the 
same feat with Home and gave me a detailed 
account of it. So also did Mr. S. C. Hall, 
who was present on another occasion, when a 
white-hot coal was put on his head and his 
white hair gathered over it, but he told me 
he felt no heat and his hair was wholly un- 
injured. 

Various other eye witnesses have informed 
me that they have seen Mr. Home handle 
with impunity red-hot coals; among others 
a shrewd and able solicitor, the late Mr. W. 
M. Wilkinson, writing to me from Lincoln's 
Inn Fields, London, states that in the winter 
of 1869:— 

"I saw Mr. Home take out of our drawing-room 
fire a red-hot coal, a little lejs in size than a cricket- 
ball, and carry it up and down the room. He said 
to Lord Adare, — now Earl Dunraven, — who was pres- 
ent, 'Will you take it from me? It will not hurt you.' 
Lord Adare took it from him and held it in his hand 



Impunity to Fire 77 

for about half a minute, and before he threw it back 
in the fire I put my hand close to it and felt the heat 
like that of a live coal." 



It is impossible to explain this by some 
fire resisting substance, surreptitiously put 
over the skin by Home, for Sir W. Crookes, 
than whom no higher authority on chemistry 
can be cited, tells us he knows of no chemical 
preparation that will accomplish this; more- 
over, he says he examined Home's hands care- 
fully, after he had carried a live coal about 
and he could see no burning nor any prepara- 
tion over the skin, "which (he remarks) was 
soft and delicate like a woman's." 

Now these phenomena are too gross and 
palpable to be explained by misdescription or 
lack of attention on the part of the observers. 
They must have thought they had seen what 
took place, — a collective hallucination, — or 
else some miraculous manifestation actually 
occurred. For all attempts to explain the 
occurrences as due to clever conjuring on 
Home's part have signally failed. Experts in 
conjuring whose opinions have been taken, 
however little they believe in Home's preten- 
sions, prefer to reject the testimony wholesale 
rather than attempt to explain these remark- 
able records. 

Can we reject the testimony, — not because 
the witnesses told conscious falsehoods, that is 



78 Chapter VI 

impossible to believe, but because they were 
hallucinated? Now at Nancy and other 
medical schools, where hypnotic suggestion 
is used therapeutically, it is invariably found 
that even the best subjects exhibit marked 
differences in suggestibility, one subject sees 
the suggested object more clearly and not 
quite the same as another. But in these 
marvels recorded with Home, the witnesses 
were not hypnotic subjects and all perceived 
the same thing, and only occasionally did they 
receive from Home any suggestion as to what 
was about to occur. The manifestations are 
recorded by those present as having been sud- 
den, startling and usually unannounced. 

If suggestion on Home's part be the explan- 
ation, it must have been purely mental; and 
difficult as it is to suppose all present are 
equally susceptible to verbal suggestion, the 
difficulty is vastly intensified when we assume 
unspoken mental suggestion, acting equally 
upon all the spectators.^ Nor must we for- 
get that the witnesses in some cases were 
entire strangers to H^ome, and fully aware of, 

1 In the "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. XII, p. 21, an inter- 
esting paper by Mr. Barrows shows that mental suggestion, with- 
out hypnosis, can operate at a distance upon different individuals; 
but only a single person is affected, and in Home's case we must 
assume a collective hallucination created by an unspoken sugges- 
tion, of which we have no experimental proof, though I admit 
this is the most plausible hypothesis of the phenomena described 
in this chapter. 



Poltergeists 79 

and on their guard against, any possible 
hallucination/ 

Nor is it likely that the sporadic cases of 
levitation recorded in history can all be 
explained away. Teresa was not the only 
saint of whom levitation is recorded. In the 
Acta Sanctorum similar phenomena are attri- 
buted to more than 40 saints or other persons, 
and said to be attested by crowds of their 
contemporaries. The Bishop of Valencia was 
believed to have been miraculously suspended 
for some hours and was thus seen by his 
clergy and a multitude of others. In fact 
unless we deny the whole of the past and 
present records of these phenomena, attempted 
explanations are as difficult to accept as the 
miracles themselves. 

Then again both in ancient and recent times 
we have first-hand evidence of the spontaneous 
occurrence of many of the physical pheno- 
mena such as were described in the last 
chapter. Without VN^arning, pieces of furni- 
ture and crockery are thrown about a room, 
bells are constantly rung, disturbances of all 
kinds are produced, without any visible cause, 
and all attempts to catch the supposed prac- 

1 The reader who wishes for more information on Home's 
marvellous record should read the two volumes "Incidents in my 
Life," by D. D. Home, or the excellent narrative by Madame 
Dunglas Home called "The Gift of D. D. Home" (Kegan Paul, 
Trench & Co.). 



8o Chapter VI 

tical joker have signally failed. In fact 
numerous witnesses, whom I have personally 
cross-examined, have assured me they have 
seen these things take place in broad daylight 
or in abundant artificial light, and no person 
had touched or even come near the things 
that were moved or thrown about the room. 
1 have published a lengthy paper on the 
evidence for these Poltergeist phenomena, as 
they are called; and no doubt whatever rests 
on my own mind as to the reality and super- 
normal character of these utterly meaningless 
phenomena.^ 

All we can do at present is to collect addi- 
tional evidence and refrain from speculating 
on the object of these preposterous and futile 
occurrences, which appear not to have the 
smallest ethical or religious value. Scientific 
and philosophical value they have undoubt- 
edly, as must be obvious to any thoughtful 
reader. 



1 See "Proceedings, S. P. R.,» Vol. XXV, p. 377, and Psychical 
Research (Home Univ. Series), chapter 13. 



CHAPTER VII 

ON CERTAIN MORE DISPUTABLE PHENOMENA 
OF SPIRITUALISM 

ECTOPLASMS; "direct" voice and writing; 

materialization; alleged spirit 
photography; the aura 

"By cherishing as a vital principle an unbounded spirit 
of enquiry and ardency of expectation reason unfetters the 
mind from prejudices of every kind . . . guarding only 
against enthusiasm and self deception by a habit of strict 
investigation. . . The character of the true philosopher 
is to hope ail things not impossible and to believe all 
things not unreasonable."^ 

There are certain other aspects of spiritual- 
istic phenomena to which I have not referred 
in the preceding pages because the evidence 
on their behalf is less conclusive. The opinion 
of some psychical researchers is indeed ad- 
verse to their genuineness, or at least their 
super-normal character. I refer to the alleged 
"Direct voice" and "Direct writing"; that 
is the speaking and writing of the soi-disant 

1 Sir John Herschel, Discourse on Natural Philosophy, § 5. 
81 



82 Chapter VII 

spirit without controlling the medium's 
muscles, or using them in any way. To this 
may be added the transport of material ob- 
jects without human agency, "apports" as 
they are termed. Further, there are alleged 
cases of "spirit photography," where impres- 
sions of persons both deceased and living, and 
of luminous patches, are said to occur on a 
photographic plate without any corresponding 
objective or known cause. All these pheno- 
mena, — like that of the alleged materialisation 
of part of the whole of the spirit form, (to 
which reference was made in Chapter V) — 
are comparatively rare and hence less access- 
ible to critical investigation. 

So far as my own experience goes I have 
repeatedly witnessed all these rare pheno- 
mena, but they were nearly always with paid 
professional mediums, and the usual condi- 
tions were such as to prevent conclusive evi- 
dence being obtained. Nevertheless I have a 
perfectly open mind on these disputed pheno- 
mena; and will go even further, for in some 
cases, which I investigated, their genuine 
super-normal character was very difficult to 
deny. 

As regards the "direct voice" and "direct 
writing," many years ago I had some sittings 
at the house of my friend the late Mr. Dawson 
Rogers, with a lady medium, a friend of his, 



''Direct Writing 83 

where both these phenomena were produced. 
The results were remarkable, and obtained 
under conditions which would have been 
perfectly satisfactory had there been enough 
light (which there was not) to form a conclu- 
sive opinion. 

Reference has been made on p. 56 to the 
direct v/riting obtained by Professor Alex- 
ander, who was well known to Mr. Myers. 
In this case the sitting was in full light, and 
the medium was the young daughter of a 
personal friend of the Professor, who says 
"it was impossible that anyone could have 
v/ritten without being immediately detected" ; 
nevertheless writing by an unseen hand came 
several times on a slate on which a small 
piece of slate pencil had been placed. ("Proc. 
S.P.R.," Vol. VII, p. 181.) It is very difhcult 
to explain away other cases of direct Vv^riting, 
such as those quoted by Dr. Walter Leaf 
"Proc. S.P.R.," XIX, p. 400, and the numer- 
ous cases in which it occurred with the Rev. 
Stainton Moses, cited in Mr. Myers' record 
of the experiences of this gifted medium, 
which were published in the "Proceedings of 
the S.P.R.," Vols. IX and XL 

Sir W. Crookes records a remarkable at- 
tempt at "direct writing" by an unseen hand, 
which took place through the mediumship of 
Mr. D. D. Home. The sitting was in the 
light at his own house, and only a few private 



84 Chapter VII 

friends present. Sir V/. Crookes, having 
asked for a written message, says : — 

*'A pencil and some pieces of paper were l5'ing on the 
centre of the table; presently the pencil rose on its 
point, and after advancing by hesitating jerks to the 
paper, fell down. It then rose and again fell. A third 
time it tried, but with no better result. After this a 
small wooden lath, which was lying upon the table, slid 
towards the pencil, and rose a few inches from the table ; 
the pencil rose again, and propping itself against 
the lath, the two together made an effort to mark the 
paper. It fell and then a joint effort was again made. 
After a third trial, the lath gave it up and moved back 
to its place, the pencil lay as it fell across the paper, and 
an alphabetic message told us, 'We have tried to do as 
you asked, but our power is exhausted.' "^ 

As this took place in the light, under the 
close inspection of Sir W. Crookes and in his 
own room, neither fraud nor hallucination can 
reasonably explain the occurrence. 

With the well-known professional medium, 
Slade I had many sittings 40 years ago, and 
obtained what was alleged to be direct spirit 
writing on my own marked slate, in full 
daylight, and under conditions which certainly 
rendered any explanation by fraud or mal- 
observation difficult to conceive. I believe 
Slade had genuine super-normal powers; 

1 "Researches in Spiritualism," by Sir W. Crookes, p. 93. 



The ''Direct" Voice 85 

this can hardly by doubted after reading the 
reports given by "M.A." (Oxon), in his book 
Psychography, or by Zollner in his Tran- 
scendental Physics. Nevertheless, like so many 
other professional mediums, it is equally true 
he resorted to trickery, and was convicted of 
cheating in a notorious case tried in London. 

Whilst the evidence against Slade in this 
case was biased and weak, yet it is obvious 
Vv^e must regard with the gravest doubt all 
phenomena obtained through any medium 
who has not a perfectly clean record. More- 
over, as Dr. Hodgson and Mr. S. J. Davey 
have shown conclusively in the "Proceedings 
of the S.P.R.," Vol. IV, it is very easy for an 
expert conjurer to simulate what many have 
considered to be genuine super-normal pheno- 
mena, such as occurred with Slade, Eglinton, 
and other professional mediums. The same 
volume of the Proceedings also contains a 
critical paper by Mrs. H. Sidgwick on her 
spiritistic experiences which, with the discus- 
sion thereon, should be read by all enquirers. 

As regards the "direct voice," this was 
the usual form in which communications came 
from a well-known American medium, with 
whom I had several sittings. Here however 
there was complete darkness, although this 
was not always resorted to by her. Some re- 
markable evidence professedly came through 
the communicating voice, identifying the 



86 Chapter VII 

speaker with deceased friends utterly un- 
known to the medium, and in some cases in 
languages unknown to the medium. But here 
also the medium was not free from suspicion, 
hence to a critical outsider the evidence can- 
not have the value which many sitters have 
attached to it. 

More remarkable are the luminous appear- 
ances accompanying the mediumship of D. D. 
Home, the Rev. Stainton Moses and others, 
which have been observed under such strin- 
gent conditions that they cannot be set aside 
as fraudulent. Points of light darting about 
the room and floating luminous patches, I 
have frequently witnessed, and once also, 
in the late Mr. W. De Morgan's studio, a 
''materialized" bust, under what appeared 
to be excellent conditions, but the inevitable 
darkness of the room compelled me to regard 
the evidence as inconclusive. Here however 
is a record by Sir W. Crookes, who, needless 
to say, took every precaution to prevent being 
imposed upon by phosphorized oil or other 
means; moreover, with all his chemical knowl- 
edge and skill he failed to imitate the appear- 
ance artificially. ''Under the strictest test 
conditions" Sir W. Crookes says: — 

"I have seen a solid self-luminous body, the size and 
nearly the shape of a turkey's egg, float noiselessly about 
the room, at one time higher than anyone present could 
reach standing on tiptoe, and then gently descend to 



Ectoplasms 87 

the floor. It was visible for more than ten minutes, and 
before it faded away it struck the table three times 
with a sound like that of a hard solid body. During 
this time the medium was lying back, apparently in- 
sensible, in an easy chair." 

The still more astonishing results recorded 
by Sir W. Crookes of the "materialization" 
of spirit hands or the whole body (see p. 54), 
remain to this day absolutely inexplicable. 

All these phenomena have been termed 
ectoplasms by Mr. Myers adapting a word 
suggested by Professor Ochorowicz of War- 
saw, whose valuable and confirmatory re- 
searches in spiritism I have not space to de- 
scribe.^ By Ectoplasy is meant the power of 
forming outside the body of the medium a 
concentration of vital energy, or vitalised 
matter, which operates temporarily in the 
same way as the body from which it is drawn ; 
so that visible, audible or tangible human-like 
phenomena are produced. This is very much 
like the psychic force hypothesis under a new 
name (see p. 107). 

As regards "apports," those I have wit- 
nessed with professional mediums were not 
convincing, and one well-known medium, now 
dead, I caught in flagrant trickery. But a 

1 Those who wish for fuller information on these phenomena 
may consult "Human Personality," Vol. II, p. 544 et seq. or 
Mr. Kenry Holt's "Cosmic Relations," Vol. I, p. 149 et seq. 



88 Chapter VII 

friend of mine, sitting with a few friends in 
the country, and no professional medium, gave 
me the detailed account of an "apport" 
brought from his own house in London which 
was so convincing to him and so inexplicable, 
that I gave a detailed account of it in Light. 
This formed one of a series of articles I vv'^rote 
for that Journal in 1881, entitled "Pieces 
Justificatives," for the formation of a Society 
for Psychical Research. 

' I will now turn to the debateable subject of 
alleged ''spirit photography." Mrs. Henry 
Sidgwick, who made a careful examination of 
this question, came to the conclusion that the 
alleged cases of the appearance of a deceased 
person on a photographic plate, were either 
wilfully fraudulent or capable of a normal 
explanation.^ 

Since Mrs. Sidgwick's investigation other 
cases have occurred which prima facie seem 
inexplicable in either of these ways. For 
example. Dr. Hyslop has published a lengthy 
paper on this subject in the "Proceedings of 
the American Society for Psychical Re- 
search," giving the reproduction of numerous 
photographs which appeai; to afford evidence 
of a super-normal origin, though I think he 

1 See "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. VII, also "Journal S. P. R.,» 
Vol. V, for a discussion on the subject. 



''Spirit Photographs 89 

will agree with me the evidence is far from 
conclusive. 

While professing, for my own part, to leave 
the question of spirit-photography an open 
one, I may here relate a very curious and in- 
teresting case of a supposed spirit photograph 
which some years ago I submitted to searching 
examination and experiment. Lady C, the 
relative of a friend of mine, had taken for the 
summer the late Lord Combermere's country 
house, Combermere Abbey, in Cheshire. The 
library in the house was a fine panelled room, 
and Miss C. (as she then was) was anxious 
to secure a photograph of it. Accordingly, 
placing her ha-lf-plate camera on its stand in 
a favorable position, — fronting the unoccu- 
pied carved oak arm chair on which Lord 
Combermere always used to sit, she opened 
a new box of photographic plates in the dark 
room, put a plate in the dark slide, and after 
focussing the camera, inserted and exposed the 
plate. On developing the plate by herself, she 
was amazed to find the figure of a leg-less old 
man seated in the carved oak arm chair. 

Shortly after this they found Lord Comber- 
mere had died from an accident he met with 
in London, and was being buried in the family 
vault, a few miles from his country house, 
at the very time the photograph was taken. 
This curious coincidence came out after the 
photograph had been developed and led to a 



90 Chapter VIl 

surmise whether the ghostly figure resembled 
the late nobleman. 

At this point the facts were communicated 
to me, and I received a print of the photo- 
graph. I wrote to the members of Lord 
Combermere's family and sent them the 
photograph. The figure was somewhat in- 
distinct and opinions differed as to the 
likeness; on the whole it was considered to 
be like him, especially in the peculiar attitude 
which was habitual to him when seated in his 
chair. 

In reply to my enquiries Miss C. informed 
me the exposure of the plate was lengthy 
some 15 minutes, and that she had for a 
short time left the empty room during the 
exposure of the plate. I thought it possible 
one of the men servants had come in and 
seated himself in the chair until he heard 
Miss C. returning. Accordingly I made a 
photographic test of this surmise. Exposing 
a half-plate in the panelled library of the 
house of my friend the late Mr. Titus Salt, 
where I happened to be staying, I asked his 
eldest son, then a youth, to walk into the room, 
sit down in the oak arm chair, cross and un- 
cross his legs, move his head slightly, and then 
walk out of the room. 

This was done and we developed the photo- 
graph together; when lo! there came out 
almost a duplicate of the Combermere photo- 



"Spirit" Photographs 91 

graph, a shadowy rather aged man with no 
legs seated in the chair, and no signs of anyone 
coming into or leaving the room. I wrote a 
paper on the whole matter and published it, 
with a reproduction of the two photographs, 
in the ''Journal of the Society for Psychical 
Research" for December, 1895. 

There I thought the matter ended, with a 
young footman as the soi-disant Lord Comber- 
mere; but I found that Miss C. and some 
others of the family strongly dissented from 
my view. They had closely examined their 
servants and had reason to believe that the 
denial, by the footman and others, — of any 
visit to the room at the time when the ex- 
posure took place, — was perfectly correct and 
straightforward. 

Some timxC later an article of mine, which 
appeared in the IVestminster Gazette, and 
contained a reference to this photograph, 
brought me the following letter from one of 
Lord Combermere's married relatives, which 
disclosed a fact of which I was previously 
unaware. 

"Dear Sir, — Having read your interesting article on 
the supernormal in the Westminster Gazette of the 9th 
inst., I cannot resist adding one detail to the account of 
Lord Combermere's supposed spirit photograph. 

"You say he had not lost his legs, but he died from 
an accident in which they were so much injured, he 
could never have used them again. He was run over 



92 Chapter VII 

by a wagon at Knightsbridge, crossing the street, and 
only lived a few weeks. 

"Lord Combermere was my father-in-law and I 
lived some years at the Abbey wuth him, and was much 
interested in Miss C 's written account of the photo- 
graph, which she gave me. The face was always too 
indistinct to be quite convincing to me, though some of 
his children had no doubt at all of the identity. I may 
add, none of the men servants in the house in the least 
resembled the figure and were all young men ; whilst 
the outside men were all attending the funeral, which 
was taking place at the Church four miles off, at the 
very time the photograph was being done. I give you 
the pour et contre quite disinterestedly, as I am not my- 
self persuaded one way or the other. — Yours very truly, 

"Jane S. C ." 

There I leave the matter sharing Mrs. C.'s 
opinion. 

Both the late Mr. A. R. Wallace, O.M., 
and Mr. W. T. Stead, with some other in- 
vestigators in England and abroad, have been 
convinced of the genuineness and veridical 
character of spirit photography; but it is so 
easy to fake a photograph by double exposure 
and otherwise, and there are so many acci- 
dental causes that give a vraisemblance to 
ghostly impressions, that we need much more 
conclusive evidence on this subject than has 
yet been obtained. 

In conclusion I may allude in passing to 
Baron Reichenbach's "odic lights" and 



Luminosity of Magnetic Field 93 

"aura" round the human body. There is 
nothing inconceivable in such phenomena, in 
fact some experiments I made in this direction 
years ago led me to think Reichenbach was 
not mistaken. But I was more interested in 
the alleged luminosity which Reichenbach de- 
clared his sensitives saw round the poles of 
a magnet and which in 1883 I set myself to 
examine. 

For this purpose it was necessary to 
construct an absolutely dark room, to try a 
large number of people, each of whom had 
to remain at least half an hour in this dark- 
ened chamber to render their eyes sufficiently 
sensitive to any faint luminosity. When this 
was done two or three sensitives were found 
who distinctly saw the luminosity and were 
able to discover the position of an artificial 
magnet which, unknovv^n to them, I had 
secreted in the dark room. Then a powerful 
electro-magnet was tried and careful pre- 
cautions were taken to avoid any unconscious 
suggestion of telepathic influence, or detection 
of the faint sound that accompanies magnet- 
isation, the sound being by proper means 
suppressed. 

The sensitives immediately drew what they 
had seen on their return to daylight, their 
drawings, made independently, agreed, and 
I published the results both in the official 
scientific journal, tht Philosophical Magazine 



94 Chapter VII 

for April 1883, and in the Proceedings of the 
Society for Psychical Research for the same 
year. Nevertheless, though I myself am 
perfectly satisfied of the existence of this 
luminosity, the evidence needs further corro- 
boration before it can be accepted by the 
scientific world/ No trace of any photo- 
graphic impression of this alleged luminosity 
was obtained even after long exposure with 
extremely sensitive plates, nor after following 
the suggestions made to me by the late Sir 
Wm. Huggins, O.M., who took much interest 
in the matter. 

In all these curious and debateable psychical 
developments the difficulty consists in finding 
the sensitive whose organization has the 
peculiar and necessary idiosyncrasy which 
enables them to become in some cases (like 
the dowser or water-finder) clairvoyant, in 
others a medium for physical phenomena or 
automatic writing. This leads us back to the 
interesting psychological problem of medium- 
ship, which is discussed in anotlier chapter, 
and which will form a fruitful field for experi- 
mental psychology in the next generation. 

1 The late Earl Crawford, then Lord Lindsay, tried similar 
experiments, at first with doubtful success; but with the medium 
Home, in 1871, Lord Lindsay states he obtained clear proof of 
the existence of this luminosity emanating from the poles of a 
large permanent magnet he had secreted in a dark room. 



art 3 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CANONS OF EVIDENCE IN PSYCHICAL 
RESEARCH 

"Nothing can destroy the evidence of testimony in any 
case but a proof or probability that persons are not com- 
petent judges of the facts to which they give testimony, 
or that they are actually under some indirect influence in 
giving it in such particular case. Till this is made out the 
testimony must be admitted."- — Bishop Butler.^ 

It is more or less unlikely that those who have 
never witnessed any of the phenomena we 
have been discussing will be able to believe 
in them fully or at all. A natural and proper 
reservation of mind always accompanies the 
reception of evidence which is opposed to the 
general experience of mankind. Even Sir 
W. Crookes writes that, in recalling the details 
of what he witnessed, he finds an antagonism 
in his mind between his reason on the one 
hand, and on the other the evidence of his 

1 "Analogy," part II, chap, 7. 
95 



96 Chapter Fill 

senses, corroborated as it was by that of other 
witnesses who were present. Yet, as Reid 
states in his essay on "Mind," and as jurists 
know, no counsel would venture to offer as 
an argument that we ought not to put faith 
in the sworn testimony of trustworthy eye- 
witnesses because what they assert is in- 
credible; few judges would listen to such 
pleading. 

But, in spite of all logic, we are conscious 
that 

"Events maj^ be so extraordinary that they hardly can 
be established by testimony. We should not give credit 
to a man who should affirm that he saw an hundred 
dice thrown in the air and they all fell on the same 
faces. If we had ourselves been spectators of such an 
event, we should not believe our own eyes till we had 
scrupulously examined all the circumstances, and assured 
ourselves that there was no trick or deception. After 
such an examination we should not hesitate to admit it, 
nothwithstanding its great improbability, and no one 
would have recourse to an inversion of the laws of 
vision in order to account for it. This shows that the 
probability of the continuance of the [recognised] lawa 
of nature is superior, in our estimation, to every other 
evidence. One may judge, therefore, of the weight of 
testimony necessary to prove a suspension of those law?, 
and how fallacious it is in such cases to apply the com- 
mon rules of evidence."^ 

* Laplace, Essai FhilosopJtique sur les Prohahtlites, p. 76. 



Canons of Evidence 97 

Hence Bertrand, in his "Traite du Som- 
nambulisme," says, with regard to kindred 
amazing phenomena, that though by listening 
to weighty evidence we may conclude there 
are sufficient reasons for believing them, 
"yet' one really does believe them only after 
having seen them." We may entertain a 
limited belief, one tempered with scepticism, 
but unreserved assent to miracles, ancient or 
modern, requires actual experience of similar 
marvels, or absolute faith not only in the 
wisdom, but also in the strict accuracy and 
moral worth of the person who attests them; 
in fact, the inner witness of our spiritual 
nature to what would otherwise be incredible. 
Albeit the position taken up by St. Thomas 
in the Gospels does not justify the scornful 
attitude of many sceptics. It is utterly 
unphilosophical to ridicule or deny well- 
attested phenomena because they are inex- 
plicable. Laplace, Abercrombie, Herschel, 
and many others might be quoted to this 
effect, but it is needless to verify so obvious 
a proposition. Only "in proportion to the 
difficulty there seems of admitting the facts 
should be the scrupulous attention we bestow 
on their examination." 

This brings me to the perfectly legitimate 
position which many take up, and which is 
justified by the caution that characterises all 
sound advance in knowledge. It is that the 



98 Chapter Fill 

antecedent improbability of these phenomena 
is so great, they are so far removed from the 
common experience of mankind, and, more- 
over, they involve ideas so unrelated to our 
existing scientific knowledge, that, before we 
can accept them, we must have, not only 
evidence, but incontestable evidence, on their 
behalf/ 

This is common sense and obviously neces- 
sary. Such undeniable evidence I have en- 
deavoured to place before my readers, though 
it may not be adequate to carry conviction of 
some of the amazing phenomena related, such 
as the "materialization" of a spirit form, — 
on this indeed I reserve my own opinion. On 
the real objective existence of most of these 
super-normal physical phenomena the evi- 
dence appears to me to be overwhelming. 

1 In a paper, "On the Value of Testimony in Matters Extraor- 
dinary," Mr. C. C. Massey, following Dr. A. R. Wallace, has 
urged that the antecedent improbability of an event is simply 
equivalent to the improbability that affirmative evidence, reaching 
a certain standard of intrinsic value, will be forthcoming, and 
therefore vanishes with the occurrence of such evidence; so that 
adverse presumption ought never to prejudice the reception and 
estimation of evidence on behalf of some fact outside our experi- 
ence. Hence (according to this view) we must dissent from the 
proposition commonly adopted that "improbability" legitimates 
the demand for an extraordinary amount of evidence, and have 
regard rather to the posiii've presumption which experience 
affords, that the best human testimony, after taking acc-ount of all 
elements of fallacy in the particular case, is only to be found 
co-existing with the actual fact testified to. 

In his presidential address to the S. P. R. in 1889, Professor H. 
Sidgwick fully discussed, and said the last word on, "The 
Canons of Evidence in Psychical Research." 



Canons of Evidence 99 

Surely it is the business of science to extend 
its domain in these fruitful fields of research, 
and it is only because the trained scientific 
investigator has, until quite recently, turned 
his back on these phenomena, that the humble 
spiritualists have had to try and do the 
neglected work of science in this very difficult 
region of enquiry; and now having done it 
to the best of their ability, they are scorned 
and pelted by the educated world and told 
they are guilty of "intellectual whoredom," 
whilst their painstaking efifort to enlarge the 
sum of human knowledge is stigmatised as the 
"recrudescence of superstition"; and this by 
the leaders and organs of scientific thought, 
where one would have expected a welcome 
even to the humblest seeker after truth/ I 
heartily agree with our great logician, De 
Morgan (if I may be excused quoting him 
again), who says: — 

"The Spiritualists, beyond a doubt, are in the track 
that has led to all advancement in physical science; 
their opponents are the representatives of those vi^ho have 
striven against progress. ... I say the deluded 
spirit-rappers are on the right track; they have the 
spirit and method of the grand old times when those 
paths were cut through the uncleared forests in which 
it is now the daily routine to walk. What was that 

1 This was written many years ago; happily such ferocious 
hostility is now rarely found except amongst those steeped ia 
German ways of thought. 



100 Chapter VIII 

spirit? It was the spirit of universal examination 
wholly unchecked by fear of being detected in the inves- 
tigation of nonsense. When the Royal Society was 
founded the Fellows set to work to prove all things, 
that they might hold fast that which was good. They 
bent themselves to the question whether sprats were 
young herrings. They made a circle of the powder of a 
unicorn's horn and set a spider in the middle of it; 
'but it immediately ran out'; they tried several times 
and the spider 'once made some stay in the powder.' 
Then they tried Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder, 
and those members who had any of the powder of sym- 
pathy were desired to bring some of it at the next 
meeting." 

But these childish researches, as we now 
see them, showed that the enquirers had really 
been enquiring. Then De Morgan proceeds 
to show that ''Spiritualists have taken the 
method of the old time," that they have 
started a theory and seen how it works, for 
without a theory facts are a mob, not an army. 
This was the method of Newton; he started 
one of the most outrageous ideas that ever 
was conceived and tried how its consequences 
worked. For Newton's theory was, "that 
there is not a particle of salt in the salt-cellars 
of the most remote star in the Milky Way 
that is not always pull, pull, pulling every 
particle of salt in the salt-cellars of our earth 
— aye, the pepper in the pepper-boxes, too — 
our pepper and salt, of course, using retalia- 



Canons of Evidence lOl 

tory measures."^ So the great law of gravi- 
tation came to be our heritage; rigorous in- 
vestigation and overwhelming evidence on 
behalf of this most improbable idea has 
established it as a universal truth. 

Again, it has now become a scientific heresy 
to disbelieve in an imperceptible, imponder- 
able, infinitely rare and yet infinitely elastic 
all-pervading kind of matter, the so-called 
luminiferous ether, which is both interstellar 
and interatomic, a material medium of a 
wholly different order of matter from any- 
thing known to our senses, and the very exist- 
ence of which is only known inferentially. 
For it is to be noted that this staggering but 
fruitful idea is based not upon direct but in- 
direct evidence, and this notwithstanding 
its "antecedent improbability." Moreover, 
modern science has taught us that there are 
myriads of waves in the ether which are too 
short or too long to affect our unaided senses. 
They might for ever have been falling on us, 
bringing a constant stream of energy from the 
sun to the earth, and still we could never have 
become aware of their existence, or of the 
medium which carried them, had we trusted 
solely to the direct evidence of our senses. 

A recognised authority has said in a standard 
text-book, "in earlier times the suggestion 
of such a medium by anyone would probably 

1 Preface of "Matter to Spirit," p. xix, et seq. 



102 Chapter Fill 

be looked upon as strong evidence of insanity. 
Even with the evidence which we now have 
in favour of a space-filling ether, there are 
many who would rather doubt such evidence 
than believe in a thing which they cannot 
taste or smell [or of which we have no direct 
sense perception]. However, considering the 
medium as only hypothetical, the fact that 
it might certainly exist and fill important 
functions in the life of the universe and still 
never be detected or suspected by us, is a 
strong reason why the postulation of such a 
medium for the explanation of natural pheno- 
mena should not be branded as irrational or 
unphilosophic."^ 

This leads us to ask is there any theory "not 
irrational or unphilosophic" that can be sug- 
gested to account for the startling and bizarre 
phenomena described in these chapters. To 
that let us now turn our attention. 



1 Preston's "Theory of Keat,*' p. 5^. 



CHAPTER IX 

THEORIES 

"Hypotheses have often an eminent use; and a facility 
in framing them, if attended with an equal facility in 
laying them aside when they have served their turn, is one 
of the most valuable qualities a philosopher can possess." 

— Sir John Herschel.^ 

Let us now consider what hypothesis can 
be framed to account for the amazing pheno- 
mena we have been considering. 

The popular view that all mediums are im- 
postors and all the manifestations associated 
with them are due to fraud, is a convenient 
explanation for those who will not take the 
trouble to enquire. But I have never yet 
met with anyone who has seriously studied 
the evidence, or engaged in prolonged invest- 
igation of this subject, who holds that view, 
however strongly he may have held it before- 
hand.^ Apart from the investigations of the 

1 "Discourse on Natural Philosophy," p. 304. 

2 A reviewer of Sir O. Lodge's book "Raymond" recently said, 
"There never yet, we believe, was a medium, unless perhaps it 
was D. D. Home, who was not sooner or later convicted of gross 

103 



104 Chapter IX 

Psychical Research Society, — the most notable 
instance of a body of able enquirers, — with 
no bias in favour of spiritualism, — who proved 
40 years ago that the phenomena could not 
be explained by imposture, is the Committee 
of the Dialectical Society already referred to. 
No doubt fraudulent paid mediums exist, 
just as bad coins do, and their existence is 
due to the fact that there are genuine ones 
to imitate. Sir W. Crookes, O.M., whose 
high position in the scientific world shows 
him to be one of the most exact and accom- 
plished of experimental investigators, — has 
said that he began his enquiry into the pheno- 
mena of Spiritualism, believing the whole 
affair was superstition and trickery, but he 
ended by "staking his scientific reputation" 
that his preconceived ideas were wrong and 
that a class of phenomena wholly new to 
science did really exist. 

Putting aside the imposture theory, what 
reasonable hypothesis can we entertain? 
Hallucination naturally suggests itself, and 
I have already referred to this in an earlier 

and deliberate fraud." Such a sweeping statement is simply 
ludicrous, when the word medium includes men of such probity 
as the Rev. Stalnton Moses and many others, as well as dis- 
tinguished ladies such as the late Mrs. Verrall and others to be 
named in later chapters. Moreover, we must remember that 
what appears to be fraud may not always be so (see p. 123), and 
further, that it is to Spiritualists themselves we mainly owe the 
exposure of dishonest mediums. 



Theories 1 05 

chapter. I was at one time disposed to think 
it was an adequate explanation. In fact, in 
a paper read before the British Association 
in 1876 on "Abnormal conditions of mind," 
which is printed in the "Proceedings of the 
Psychical Research Society" (vol. i, p. 238), 
I detailed some experiments I had made, 
showing that by suggestion it was easy to 
lead a subject, when in a light hypnotic trance, 
to hold the most extravagant beliefs, e.g., 
that he had floated round the room, and this 
for some days after complete waking. But 
hallucination cannot account for the perma- 
nent records Sir William Crookes obtained, 
even if it extended to all the numerous wit- 
nesses who were sometimes present with him 
on these occasions. Hence, though admitting 
that it is of great importance to be on one's 
guard against hallucination and mal-observa- 
tion, as well as fraud, I am fully satisfied that 
these causes are quite inadequate to explain 
all the phenomena before us. 

Let us therefore consider what other 
hypotheses can be framed to account for the 
phenomena under discussion. A provisional 
theory which physiologists might be disposed 
to accept, when they admit the genuineness 
of the simpler physical phenomena of spiritu- 
alism, is that of an Exo-neural action of the 
brain. But this must be a sub-conscious 



io6 Chapter IX 

action, an effect of the subliminal self to which 
we shall refer later on. Moreover, this must 
ibe supplemented by a store of available energy 
in the unseen, which can not only be con- 
trolled and liberated by the subliminal self, 
but also, in some unknown way, can be made 
to act directly upon lifeless matter. 
' So far as I am aware, the first person to 
suggest an exo-neural action of the mind was 
Dr. Mayo, F.R.S., in his admirable little book 
on the "Truths contained in Popular Super- 
stitions," published in 1851. He says in 
explanation of mesmeric clairvoyance or 
lucidity, "I hold that the mind of a living 
person in its most normal state is always, to 
a certain extent, acting exo-neurally or beyond 
the limits of the bodily person, and in the 
lucid state this exo-neural apprehension seems 
to extend to every object and person around." 
The high position held by Dr. Mayo as Pro- 
fessor of Physiology in King's College and the 
Royal College of Surgeons, London, entitled 
his suggestions to greater consideration than 
they received. 

A theory of this kind was indeed proposed 
by Count de Gasparin, in 1854, to explain the 
physical phenomena of Spiritualism, as the 
result of his prolonged experiments, and a 
little later by Professor Thury, of Geneva, 
and again later by Sergeant Cox. This may 
be called the theory of "ectenic" or ''psychic 



Theories 107 

force/' and it attributes the phenomena to 
some extension in space of the nervous force 
of the medium, just as the power of a magnet, 
or of an electric current, extends beyond itself 
and can influence and move certain distant 
bodies which lie within the field of the mag- 
netic or electric force. 

It is, however, worth noting that the 
"psychic force," theory, often adopted at the 
outset by enquirers, is usually abandoned by 
them later on as it is inadequate to explain 
the phenomena we shall discuss subsequently, 
v/here an intelligence apart from those present 
is manifested; hence advanced enquirers 
usually fall back upon the spirit theory as the 
simplest explanation of all the manifestations. 
Thus Professor Lombroso, in an article pub- 
lished in the '^Annals of Psychical Science" 
for 1908, states he advocated the psychic 
force theory until he found it impossible to 
explain by that hypothesis many of the 
phenomena which he proceeds to detail. 
Nevertheless some such theory, as an exo- 
neural action of our organism, which covers 
the simpler physical phenomena of Spiritual- 
ism, may be enunciated in the future by 
physiologists who wish to escape from the 
implications involved in the theory of a dis- 
carnate intelligence. 

There is another hypothesis, somewhat 



lo8 Chapter IX 

allied to that of psychic force, which is worth 
consideration. It may be that the intelligence 
operating at a seance is a Thought-projection 
of ourselves— thdii each one of us has his 
simulacrum in the unseen. That with the 
growth of our life and character here, a 
ghostly image of oneself is growing up in the 
invisible world; nor is this inconceivable. As 
thought, will, and emotion can affect, and to 
some extent mould, the gross matter of which 
our bodies are composed, — 

"For of the soule the bodie forme doth take, 
For soule is forme and doth the bodie make."^ — 

a more perfect impress is quite conceivable 
upon the finer matter of the unseen universe. 
The phenomena of telepathy show either that 
thought can powerfully affect an unseen 
material medium, or else project particles of 
thought-stuff through space, or that telepathy 
is the direct operation of our transcendental 
or intuitive self, as Mr. Constable has said in 
his suggestive work on Personality and Tele- 
pathy. Physics teaches us that light, heat, 
electricity, and magnetism affect the matter 
of an invisible world, the all pervading ether, 
more perfectly than they do the matter of 
the visible world. Suns and stars, as well as 
much of the world in which we live, would 

1 Spenser. "Hymne In honour of Beautie," line 132. 



Theories 109 

have no existence for us but for the influence 
they impress upon the unseen ether. 

May not thought be able to act in like 
manner? In fact it has ^been suggested by 
two profound and distinguished scientific men, 
Professors Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait, 
"that thought conceived to affect the matter 
of another universe simultaneously with this 
may explain a future state."^ 

The ancient Buddhist doctrine of Karma 
also teaches that our future state is the result 
of our thoughts and actions, the sum of our 
merit or demerit, — 

"All that total of a soul 
Which is the things it did, the thoughts It had." 

Karma is thus the relentless operation and 
spiritual embodiment of the law of cause and 
effect, from which none of us can escape. In 
modern Theosophy we find the same idea, 
developed in connection with the doctrine of 
re-incarnation. The thoughts of each in- 
dividual life, generate a thought-body in the 
unseen, which becomes the next dwelling 
place of our soul on its return to earth. 

1 The whole passage runs as follows: "If we now turn to 
thought, we find that inasmuch as it affects the substance of the 
present visible universe, it produces a material organ of memory. 
But the motions which accompany thought must also affect the 
invisible order of things, while the forces which cause these 
motions are likewise derived from the same region, and thus it 
follows that thought conceived to affect the matter of another 
universe simultaneously vjith this may explain a future state." 
— "The Unseen Universe," p. 199. (Fourth Edition.) 



no Chapter IX 

Hence the innate dispositions of a child is 
the result of its own unconscious past, the 
character it has moulded for itself during a 
previous existence on earth. 

If, in a more concrete manner than Long- 
fellow meant, 

"No action whether foul or fair 
Is ever done but it leaves somewhere 
A record written by fingers ghostly," 

if our thoughts and characters are faithfully 
and indelibly being written on the unseen, 
we are, in fact, involuntarily and inexorably 
creating not only in our own soul, but possibly 
in the invisible world, an image of ourselves, 
a thought-projection, that embraces both our 
outer and our innermost life. And it may be 
that during a seance a quasi-vitality is given 
to these conceivable thought-bodies which 
disappears when the sitting is over: there is, 
as we all know, some drain on the medium's 
vitality during a successful seance. But 
whatever explanation we adopt, there appears 
to be some sympathetic response, something 
analogous to resonance in the unseen, occur- 
ring in these psychical phenomena. Possibly 
it is this which so often causes the manifesting 
intelligence to appear but a reflection of the 
mind of the medium, and leads to the danger, 
of which investigators are well aware, de- 
ceptive communications. 



The Super-sensible World ill 

Or we may reverse this hypothesis and hold, 
with Plato, that the world of sensible things 
is only an image of the world of ideas existing 
in a super-sensible world, that objects of 
sense have only a borrowed existence received 
from the eternal realities, or ideas in the 
unseen. This was very much Swedenborg's 
view, that the objects in the natural world 
are merely ephemeral counterparts and efifects 
of things and causes in the more real spiritual 
world into which we pass after this life. We 
are thus incarnate ghosts of our true selves, 
fleeting material phantasms of our true and 
enduring personality. 

To return from this digression, — ^What 
other theory can be proposed to account for 
the physical manifestations of what appear to 
be active and unseen intelligences? The usual 
theory of Spiritualists is that the phenomena 
are due to the action of discarnate human 
beings, who thus seek to make their continued 
existence known to us. But although these 
manifestations show intelligence, they afford 
no proof whatever of the continued existence 
of human beings after death. Evidence of 
this, derived from other psychical phenomena, 
we shall consider later on, and, if the spiritual- 
istic theory be accepted, it may then seem 
to be the simplest solution of all the pheno- 
mena, albeit some of the marvels connected 



112 Chapter IX 

with the medium Home will remain an out- 
standing puzzle. 

Meanwhile it is not a very incredible thing 
to suppose that in the luminiferous ether (or 
in some other unseen material medium) life of 
some kind exists; and that the law of evolu- 
tion — the Divine law of progress — has been at 
work, maybe for aeons prior to the formation 
of a habitable earth. If the grosser matter we 
are familiar with is able to be the vehicle of 
life, and respond to the Divine spirit, the finer 
and more plastic matter of the ether might 
more perfectly manifest and more easily 
respond to the inscrutable Power that lies 
behind phenomena. There is nothing ex- 
travagant, nothing opposed to our present 
scientific knowledge, in this assumption. 

It is, therefore, in harmony with all we 
know to entertain a belief in an unseen world, 
in which myriads of living creatures exist, 
some with faculties like our own, and others 
with faculties beneath or transcending our 
own; and it is possible that the evolutionary 
development of such a world has run on 
parallel lines to our own.^ The rivalry of 

1 Isaac Taylor, in his well-known and suggestive book, "Physi- 
cal Theory of Another Life," chap. 17, which I have read since 
the above was written, has a similar conjecture, and maintains 
that the Scriptures support the existence of an entire order of 
both good and evil beings around us; he holds that "one well- 
attested instance of the presence and intelligent agency of an in- 
visible being would be enough to carry the question of an invisible 
economy pervading the visible universe" (p. 264), 



Life in the Invisible 113 

life, the existence of instinct, intellect, con- 
science, will, right and wrong are as prob- 
able there as here. And, in course of time, 
consciousness of our human existence may 
have come to our unseen neighbours, and 
some means of mental, or even material, 
communication with us may have been found. 
For my own part, it seems not improbable 
that many of the physical manifestations 
v^itnessed in a Spiritualistic seance are the 
product of human-like, but not really human, 
intelligences — good or bad daimonia they may 
be, elementals some have called them, which 
aggregate round the medium; drawn from 
that particular plane of mental and moral 
development in the unseen which corresponds 
to the mental and moral plane of the medium. 
The possible danger of such influences I will 
refer to in a subsequent chapter (see page 250) . 
But if such unseen intelligences have for 
ages past existed in our midst, may they not 
have had some share in the history of life on 
this earth? We know how largely man can 
modify both organic and inorganic nature by 
the exercise of his intelligence and will; if we 
can even alter the varieties of plants and 
animals by artificial selection, is it unreason- 
able to suppose that the psychical operation 
of unseen intelligences may have influenced 
the course of evolution through the ages? 
Is it possible that some of the unsolved 



114 Chapter IX 

problems in the doctrine of evolution may 
have to be shifted from the world of sense 
and gross matter to the unseen world around 
us, just as in physics we are gradually shift- 
ing our penultimate explanation of perceptible 
things to the imperceptible ether? The great 
First Cause must ever lie beyond our ken, but 
science, which deals with secondary causes, 
is finding that to many obscure questions the 
visible world appears to offer no intelligible 
solution. 

The existence of a fourth dimension in space 
is not an explanation of the origin of the 
phenomena of Spiritualism, but a mathe- 
matical conception that shows the possibility 
for some of those phenomena to four- 
dimensional beings, provided they could, 
under certain circumstances, produce effects 
visible to us three-dimensional beings. Some 
of these effects, we can theoretically predict, 
e.g. the passage of matter through matter, or 
the knotting of a single endless cord, or loop, 
or ring of leather. An intelligent being, 
having the power to produce on this cord 
four-dimensional bendings, would be able to 
tie one or more knots on it without loosening 
the sealed ends of the cord or cutting the ring 
of leather. Though this feat is to us, of 
course, impossible, it is asserted that it was 
successfully performed in a few minutes, in 



Zollne/s Experiments 115 

full light, in December, 1877, through the 
instrumentality of a well-known medium, and 
in the presence of some distinguished and 
critical German men of science. Professors 
Zollner, Weber, Fechner, and Scheibner. The 
full account, with the precautions taken to 
avoid deception, is given in Mr. Massey's 
translation of ZoUner's ''Transcendental 
Physics." Nor was this a unique experience; 
for a similar experiment, a knot tied in an 
unseamed ring of leather, is reported to have 
been successfully made in Russia, and vouched 
for by the Hon. A. Aksakof. On the other 
hand, I am not aware of any corroboration of 
these experiments in recent years, and whilst 
it seems impossible to explain them away by 
deception, or gross exaggeration or mal- 
observation, it is wiser to suspend our judg- 
ment on these, and some other of the rarer 
spiritualistic phenomena and regard them as 
"not proven" until more abundant and con- 
clusive evidence is forthcoming. 

This long discussion of various theories has 
I fear wearied my readers, but psychical 
researchers are cutting a path through un- 
cleared forests, and all conjectures regarding 
the right way are useful. To change the 
simile we are laying the foundations of a new 
and spacious annex to the temple of knowl- 
edge, and we must be prepared to see a forest 
of scaffolding — in the shape of theories and 



ii6 Chapter IX 

working hypotheses — arise. Only thus can 
the solid stones of fact be laid and the temple 
upbuilt, then in course of time, "the facts will 
tell their own story and supply their own ex- 
planation; at present we have to labour and 
to wait." 



CHAPTER X 

THE PROBLEM OF MEDIUMSHIP 

"Whose exterior semblance doth belie 
The Soul's immensity." 

It may be asked, and many have asked scorn- 
fully, why should a medium be necessary in 
these Spiritualistic manifestations? 

As we are all aware, the production of the 
phenomena appears to be inseparably con- 
nected with some special living organisations 
that are called "mediumistic." And it may 
well be, granting the existence of a spiritual 
world, that a medium is as necessary there as 
here; in fact, there seems evidence in all the 
communications purporting to come from 
deceased persons that they find an inter- 
mediary between themselves and the medium 
on earth is necessary to them as to us. Looked 
at from a purely scientific standpoint, there 
is nothing remarkable in this. Certain 
persons, happily not all of us, are subject to 
abnormal states of body and mind, and the 
alienist or pathologist does not refuse to 

117 



iiS Chapter X 

investigate insanity or epilepsy because 
restricted to a limited number of human 
beings. 

Furthermore, physical science affords abun- 
dant analogies of the necessity for a medium, 
or intermediajy, between the unseen and the 
seen. We know nothing of any of the physical 
energies, such as electricity, magnetism, light, 
gravitation, etc., except through their effects 
on material bodies. They are unseen and 
unknowable until manifested by their action 
on matter. We do not see electricity in a 
lightning flash, only atmospheric particles 
made white-hot through the resistance they 
offer to the electric discharge. In like manner 
the waves of the luminiferous ether require a 
material medium to absorb them before they 
can be perceived by our senses; the inter- 
mediary may be the photographic plate, the 
rods and cones of the retina, a blackened 
surface, or the electric resonators of wireless 
telegraphy, according to the respective length 
of those waves; but some medium, formed 
of ponderable matter, is absolutely necessary 
to render the chemical, luminous, thermal, 
or electrical effects of these waves percep- 
tible to us. And the more or less perfect 
rendering of these effects depends on the 
more or less perfect synchronism between 
those ethereal waves and their mundane 
receiver. 



Problem of Medlumship 119 

Thus we find certain definite physical media 
are necessary to enable operations to become 
perceptible which would otherwise remain 
imperceptible. Through these media, energy 
from the unseen physical world without us 
enters the seen, and passing through the seen 
affects thereby the unseen mental world within 
us. The extreme ends of the operation are 
unknown to us, and it is only during the 
transition stage that the flux of energy 
appeals to our senses, and therefore it is 
only with this stage of appearances, that 
is to say with phenomena, that science can 
deal. 

This is also true of life itself; for life of 
any kind, however lovvdy it may be, is unseen 
by and unknowable to us per se; we only 
know life through its varied manifestations in 
organic matter, that is in living phenomena. 
This is, of course, equally true of our mind, 
which reveals itself through the brain, and in 
like manner a discarnate mind requires a 
medium for its manifestation. And we may 
take it as unquestionable, whatever shrinking 
our religious instincts may at first feel, that 
anything and everything that enters the world 
of phenomena becomes thereby a legitimate 
and promising subject of scientific investiga- 
tion. As Sir Oliver Lodge has well said: 
"The least justifiable attitude is that which 
holds that there are certain departments of 



I20 Chapter X 

truth in the universe which it is not lawful to 
investigate." 

The nexus between the seen and the unseen 
may be, as we have shown, physical, physio- 
logical, or psychical, but whichever it may be, 
it is a specialised substance, or organ, or 
organism; in many cases it is a body in a 
state of unstable equilibrium, and in that 
case, therefore, of a delicate nature, a body to 
be handled carefully, and its behaviour or 
idiosyncrasies needing to be studied and 
known beforehand. 

It is doubtless a peculiar psychical state 
that confers mediumistic power, but we know 
nothing of its nature, and we often ruin our 
experiments and lose our results by our 
ignorance. Certainly it is very probable that 
the psychical state of those present at a 
seance will be found to react on the medium. 
We should get no results if our photographic 
plates were exposed to the light of the room 
simultaneously with the luminous image 
formed by the lens. In every physical pro- 
cess we have to guard against disturbing 
causes. 

If, for example, the late Prof. S. P. Langley, 
of Washington, in the delicate experiments he 
conducted for so many years — exploring the 
ultra red radiation of the sun — had allowed 
the thermal radiation of himself or his 



Problem of Mediumship 121 

assistants to fall on his sensitive thermoscope, 
his results would have been confused and un- 
intelligible. We know that similar confused 
results are obtained in psychical research, 
especially by those who fancy the sole function 
of a scientific investigator is to play the part 
of an amateur detective; and accordingly 
what they detect is merely their own in- 
competency to deal with problems the very 
elements of which they do not understand 
and seem incapable of learning. Investigators 
who, taking an exalted view of their own 
sagacity, enter upon this enquiry with their 
minds made up as to the possible or impossi- 
ble, are sure to fail. Such people should be 
shunned, as their habit of thought and mode 
of action are inappropriate, and therefore 
essentially vulgar, for the essence of vulgarity 
is inappropriateness. 

Inasmuch as we know nothing of the 
peculiar psychical state that constitutes 
mediumship, we ought to collect and record 
all conditirns which attend a successful seance. 
Mediumship seems in some points analogous 
to "rapport" in mesmeric trance, and it 
would be interesting to know whether a 
mesmeric sensitive is more open to medium- 
ship that the rest of mankind. Again, are 
those who are good percipients in telepathic 
experiments also percipients in spontaneous 
telepathy, such as apparitions at the moment 



122 Chapter X 

of death, and are these again hypnotic 
sensitives? Similar questions also arise as 
to somnambulists; in a word, is there any- 
thing in common between the obscure 
psychical states of these different classes of 
sensitives? Very probably there is, for all 
psychical phenomena, as we shall see directly, 
involve to a greater or less extent the operation 
of an unconscious part of our personality, a 
hidden self which in a medium emerges from 
its obscurity, as the normal consciousness and 
self-control subsides. This fact does, indeed, 
afford some clue to the peculiar psychological 
condition of mediumship. 

Here we may remark that our conscious 
life expresses itself in voluntary muscular 
movements, such as speech or gesture; 
whereas our sub-conscious life expresses itself 
in involuntary muscular action, such as auto- 
matic writing or speaking or the motion of a 
planchette or the "dowsing rod," etc. Such 
instrumental appliances for revealing our 
hidden, sub-conscious self, I have called 
autoscopes. If the will or reason concerns 
itself with any of these automatic actions, 
the motion becomes voluntary and passes 
from the control of the sub-conscious to that 
of the conscious self. Hence under such 
circumstances those psychical phenomena 
which spring from the sub-conscious self, 



Problem of Medtumship 123 

will either yield a confusing result or fail 
entirely. 

All I wish to point out here is that medium- 
ship depends on the emergence of the sub- 
conscious life and therefore the ordinary 
waking consciousness must be more or less 
passive. It is the lack of the normal conscious 
control of his thoughts and actions that renders 
the medium so liable to the influence of any 
inimical suggestion from the sitters. For a 
medium is eminently a suggestible subject, 
and may sometimes unconsciously be the 
victim, and not the conscious originator, of 
the fraud which dominates the opinion of 
those sceptical investigators who believe all 
mediums are impostors. In fact, as Dr. 
Hyslop and many European psychiatrists have 
shown, an entranced medium is not in a nor- 
mal condition but shows evidence of hysteria. 

It must be borne in mind that the medium 
understands the phenomena as little as the 
investigator, or even less if possible, for he 
has less experience of what goes on, being 
very often in a trance; hence the medium's 
opinions or explanation of the manifestations, 
in his normal state, is quite valueless. The 
medium should, in fact, be treated as has been 
already said, and as Sir Oliver Lodge has also 
said, ''as a delicate piece of apparatus where- 
with we are making an investigation. The 
medium is an instrument whose ways and 



124 Chapter X 

idiosyncrasies must be learnt, and to a certain 
extent humoured, just as one studies and 
humours the ways of some much less delicate 
piece of physical apparatus turned out by a 
skilled instrument maker." 

This is quite consistent with taking all 
needful precautions against deception. The 
stricter methods which, I think wisely, the 
Society for Psychical Research have adopted, 
have no doubt eliminated much that passed 
as evidence amongst Spiritualists, and also 
cleared off a number of those detestable 
professional rogues who prey on the grief and 
credulity of mankind. 

The word "medium" is certainly an 
objectionable one. In the public mind it is 
usually associated with various degrees of 
rascality, and so long as paid mediums 
and dark seances are encouraged, and rogues 
and fools abound, the evil odour which sur- 
rounds the name "medium" is likely to 
remain. 

But there is another objection to the word. 
A "medium" is too often taken to imply an 
intermediary between the spirit-world and our 
own; whereas, many so-called Spiritualistic 
communications are nothing but the un- 
conscious revelation of the medium's own 
thoughts, or latent memory, or "subliminal 
self." I agree, therefore, with my friend 



Problem of Mediumship 125 

the late Frederick Myers, who calls the word 
medium "a barbarous and question begging 
term," and suggests the use of the word 
"automatist"; others hav"^ suggested, and 
some have used, the word ''psychic." Either 
of these words is preferable, if usage were 
not against them, until a wider interest in, 
and knowledge of, the whole subject leads to 
a new terminology. 

I have thought it better to keep to the 
common phraseology, disclaiming, however, 
the common implication, namely, that the 
word medium always implies an agent be- 
tween ourselves and a spiritual world, or a 
personality, external to the medium. It may 
be, and very often is, only the unconscious 
world or unrecognised personality within the 
medium. For the whole of our personality, 
as is well known, is not included in the normal 
self with which we are familiar in our waking 
life. 

There is in each of us an outer as well as an 
inner court to our personality. The outer 
being our conscious ego and the inner our 
sub-conscious ego. To this latter, this self 
below the threshold (limen) of consciousness, 
a new significance and importance has been 
given by Mr. Myers, and the wider term he 
suggested, the subliminal self, is now familiar. 
It may here be useful for those of my readers 
who have not studied psychology to consider 



126 Chapter X 

the subject of Human personality and Con- 
sciousness more closely, as it throws some light 
on the nature of mediumship and the pheno- 
mena we are discussing. 

Note, — It has been pointed out on p. 123 that the 
medium belongs to that class of persons whom Prof. P. 
Janet in his masterly work "L'Automatisme Psycholo- 
gique" terms les individus suggestibles; persons controlled 
by an idea or suggestion either self-originated (auto-sug- 
gestion) or coming from without, it may be from the un- 
seen. Something typical of this suggestibility of certain 
individuals, and not of others in their order, is seen even in 
lower forms of life, in the way their coloration is affected 
by the colour of their surroundings, etc. (see p. 156). 



CHAPTER XI 

HUMAN PERSONALITY: 

THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! 
how infinite in faculty! ... in apprehension how like 
a god\"—Ha?nlet 11. , 2. 

Our consciousness is the fundamental fact, 
the most real thing, of which we are aware, 
and although it consists of a succession of 
states of mind, no two of which are exactly 
alike, it is nevertheless combined into a 
continuous personal identity which we call 
'^ourself." Even when there are interrup- 
tions of our self-consciousness, as in sleep, we 
recognise the self that wakes up in the morn- 
ing as the same self that went to sleep over- 
night. So also throughout our life we are 
conscious of the same identity, the same self, 
albeit the whole material of body, brain and 
sensory organs has been repeatedly swept away 
and renewed. 

Hence our personality is not a mere bundle 
127 



128 Chapter XI 

of loose sensations: no succession of states of 
mind, no series of thoughts or feelings can 
fuse themselves into a single resultant con- 
sciousness, with a knowledge and memory of 
all the other states. 

Everyone is now familiar with the rapid 
succession of instantaneous photographs seen 
in the cinematograph, where, for example, 
a series of pictures of a man running swiftly 
gives us the appearance of a single moving 
figure. But the photographs remain distinct; 
the combination is effected by something 
external to the pictures, our own perception. 
And so there must be something lying in the 
background of our consciousness which com- 
bines the series of impressions made upon us, 
or the states of feeling within us; this unifying 
power we may call our Ego or soul. 

Even if the stream of consciousness be, as 
some believe, an epi-phenomenon, a series of 
shadows cast by the motion of brain processes, 
or if consciousness be an attribute of the 
molecules of organic matter, matter preceding 
mind, there must be some transcendental and 
permanent nexus, a soul which unites 
successive sensations and perceptions into a 
coherent self-conscious personality; some- 
thing which gives a meaning to and holds 
together the stream of manifold ideas. 

It is a remarlvable fact, that a multitude 
of impressions are constantly being made 



Human Personality 129 

upon us, to which this Ego appears to pay no 
heed. Either because they are not strong 
enough to pierce our consciousness — for a 
certain intensity must be reached before an 
impression can stir our Ego, — a relatively 
feeble stimulus, such as the light of the stars 
in daytime, cannot cross the threshold of our 
consciousness and gain an entrance to our 
mind — or because among the crowd of strong 
impressions which do enter, the Ego exercises 
a selective power. We direct our attention 
upon a few, chiefly because they interest us; 
these we are conscious of and can afterwards 
recall by an effort of memory. The will, 
moved in the first instance by desire — that is, 
by what interests us, our ruling love — deter- 
mines the attention we give to particular im- 
pressions; thus we become conscious of, or 
alive to, thoughts or sensations excited by 
certain impressions, and let the rest go by 
unheeded. Our choice thus determines our 
experience, what we include in our material 
and mental possessions, our conscious ''me"; 
the "me" being the known, the "I" the know- 
ing, self: all else we regard as the "not me." 
Furthermore, this process of selection, if 
we do it regularly, soon becomes habitual or 
automatic; the effort of attention is no longer 
required, and the will is set free for some other 
purpose ; for instance, we walk, or v/e combine 
the letters in reading instinctively without 



130 Chapter XI 

being conscious of the steps in the process/ 
And so with the world within ourselves, we 
do not perceive the regular and continuous 
beating of the heart, hence the processes of 
respiration, circulation, and nutrition go on 
unconsciously in a healthy body. And to 
some extent this is also true of the nutrition 
of the mind, for the character is built up, in 
part, by the stream of unconscious impressions 
made upon us. 

Again, consciousness is not aroused by a 
continuous succession of uniform impressions. 
We should be utterly unconscious of warmth, 
however hot things might be, if everything 
were at one uniform temperature, and we 
should be equally unconscious of light if the 
universe and all material objects were illumin- 
ated with a continuous and uniform bright- 
ness. It is differences of state that v/e perceive, 
or the ratio of the strength of one sensation to 
another. The actual span of our conscious- 
ness is, therefore, very narrow. As the late 

1 Education is, in great part, the training to do automatically 
and unconsciously what would otherwise have to be done with 
conscious effort. Genius is a still more striking example of the 
power of unconscious acts. And what is done by the unconscious 
self is more easily and better done than by the conscious self; 
hence it would seem as if the summit of attainment would lead to 
the absence of any conscious effort at all. This, indeed, is the 
logical outcome of all Naturalistic hypotheses of human life. In 
a striking passage in the second chapter of "Foundations of 
Belief," the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour has dealt with this very 
question. 



Human Personality 131 

Professor W. James, of Harvard, remarks in 
his valuable text-book on Psychology: — ■ 

One of the most extraordinary facts of our life is 
that, although we are besieged at every moment by im- 
pressions from our whole sensory surface, we notice so 
very small a part of them. The sum total of our im- 
pressions never enters into our experience, consciously so 
called, which runs through this sum total like a tiny 
rill through a broad flowery mead. Yet the physical 
impressions which do not count are there as much as 
those which do. Why they fail to pierce the mind is a 
mystery, and not explained when we invoke die Enge 
des Bewusstseins, "the narrowness of consciousness," as 
its ground. 

All these impressions, whether we are 
conscious of them or not, leave some mark 
behind; they weave a visible, or invisible 
thread into the fabric of our life; like every 
trivial act we perform, they make a percepti- 
ble or an imperceptible indent on our per- 
sonality. We know that this is the case, that 
impressions not perceived when they were 
made have, nevertheless, effected a lodgment 
within us, for although we cannot recall them 
at pleasure, they often emerge from their 
latent state in a fragmentary and disconnected 
manner. This is the case when the attention 
is withdrawn from things around us in reverie 
or "crystal gazing," or often in illness or 
dream, and still more in somnambulism or in 



132 Chapter XI 

hypnotic trance, and in many cases of auto- 
matic writing, or other so-called Spiritualistic 
phenomena. 

Our Ego or soul is therefore not merely 
co-extensive with those things of which we 
are or have been conscious; the range of our 
personality must be extended to include some- 
thing more than our normal self-consciousness. 
Not only are there, as it were, horizontal 
strata in our personality, from the material 
or lowest ''me" up to the spiritual or highest 
"me," but there is also a vertical division 
which runs through all. On one side of this 
vertical plane of cleavage lie all those im- 
pressions which have penetrated our con- 
sciousness, all those states of thought and 
feeling which in our waking life memory can 
restore; on the other side lie the vastly greater 
number of impressions made upon us of which 
we were unconscious at the time, or, being 
conscious, have completely forgotten. One 
part of our Ego is, therefore, illuminated by 
consciousness, and another part lies in the dark 
shadow of unconsciousness. 

Thus the outer or conscious self, as said, is 
not our entire self, any more than the visible 
or earth-turned face of the moon is the whole 
moon. Mr. Frederick Myers has well com- 
pared our normal self-consciousness to the 
visible spectrum of sunlight; beyond it on 
either side is a wide tract, imperceptible to 



Human Personality 133 

the eye, yet crowded with radiation. Each 
pencil of sunlight embraces these invisible, as 
well as the visible, rays, and so each human 
personality embraces the unconscious as well 
as the conscious self. And just as experi- 
mental physics has within the present century 
revealed the existence of ultra-violet and 
infra-red portions of the spectrum, and shown 
us how we may, in part, render these obscure 
rays visible, so with the growth of experi- 
mental psychology we are beginning to dis- 
cover the complex nature of our personality, 
and how that part of our Ego which is below 
the threshold of consciousness may be led to 
emerge from its obscurity. As the bright 
light of day quenches the feebler light of the 
stars, so the vivid stream of consciousness in 
our waking life must usually be withdrawn or 
enfeebled before the dim record of unheeded 
past impressions, or the telepathic impact of 
an extraneous mind, becomes apparent. 

Hence, as we have already pointed out, a 
state of passivity is favourable to the emerg- 
ence of the subliminal consciousness, and this 
is one of the characteristics of mediumship. 
It is true that in many cases of automatic 
writing by planchette or otherwise, long 
coherent messages are given whilst the 
thoughts of the medium are engaged on other 
matters, but the effort of attention is relaxed, 
and if it be directed to the writing, or any 



134 Chapter XI 

conscious effort made to assist it, the spell is 
broken, and the inner self sinks again into 
obscurity/ Furthermore, and singularly 
enough, this secondary or subliminal self 
never identifies itself with the ordinary wak- 
ing self. Another person seems to have taken 
control of the hand or voice of the medium, 
a distinct intelligence that has its own past 
history, but with little, if any, knowledge of 
the past of the other self. The foreign nature 
of the "control" naturally suggests the 
agency of an external intelligence, a spirit 
or demon, "possessing" the medium, or of 
another personality that alternates with the 
normal soul. 

The well known facts of "double conscious- 
ness" illustrate the latter;^ a remarkable case 
of this kind I was personally acquainted with 
and investigated some years ago. The subject, 

1 A similar sensitiveness to conscious attention is seen in experi- 
ments in thought-transference, and even in the pseudo thought- 
reading of the "willing game"; and ignorance of this fact is 
what usually leads to failure. The intrusion of the will, of con- 
scious effort, is therefore prejudicial in all such experiments. The 
well meaning endeavours of those who tell the percipient "to try 
earnestly" to guess the thing thought of, defeat the object in 
view. If the percipient does try, his will comes in and prevents 
the emergence of the hidden and responsive part of his person- 
ality. In fact, "psychical research" in general deals with the 
varied manifestations and operations of the unconscious part of 
our personality. 

2 A possible, though only partial, explanation of dual conscious- 
ness is the separate action of the two lobes of the brain caused 
by an alternating inhibition of the functions of each lobe. 



Human Personality 135 

since dead, was the son of a London clergy- 
man, and the duration of the abnormal state 
became so extended that it was difficult to call 
it by that name, but however many days had 
elapsed since the transition from one state to 
the other, — a brief period of insensibility 
separating the two, — on the return to the 
previous state, the old conversation was 
resumed precisely at the point where it was 
interrupted; in the abnormal state consider- 
able musical knowledge was possessed, of 
which the subject appeared to be quite ig- 
norant in the other state; the life, the inter- 
ests, the conversation were quite distinct; even 
the parentage and family were regarded as 
different in the two states/ These cases of 
alternating personality resemble some of the 
delusions of the insane, and from time im- 
memorial have led to the belief that the right- 
ful owner of the body has been temporarily 
or permanently displaced, and another soul 
has taken "possession," like a cuckoo, of a 
nest that is not its own. 

The whole subject of the dissociation of 
personality has in recent years received care- 
ful study by eminent psychologists, and the 
reader will find an admirable discussion of 
this question in Chapter 2 of Mr. F. W. H. 
Myers' great work on "Human Personality." 

1 This case is given in full in "Proceedings S. P. R.3" Vol. IV, 
pp. 230-232. 



136 Chapter XI 

Multiple, as well as secondary, personalities, 
sometimes are exhibited by the same subject. 
Such for example are the well known cases of 
Leonie, investigated by Professor P. Janet; 
Louis Vive; Sally Beauchamp, investigated 
by Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, U.S.A.; 
and other instances known to psychologists. 

More recently a remarkable case of multiple 
personality in an American girl named Doris 
Fischer has received minute and continuous 
study by Dr. Walter Prince. His report fills 
two bulky volumes of the Proceedings of the 
American S.P.R., to which Dr. Hyslop has 
contributed a lengthy and valuable addition. 

The classical case of Miss Beauchamp, 
fully described in Dr. Morton Prince's work 
The Dissociation of a Personality^ is briefly 
as follows: — 

A mental shock which Miss Beauchamp received at 
College in 1893 produced the first disintegration of 
consciousness, she became modified into what Dr. Prince 
terms B i. This personality alternated with another 
B 2, at first induced by hypnotic treatment. In course 
of time a new and wholly different personality appeared 
B 3, which called itself "Sally." Whilst B i was cul- 

lAlso in "Proceedings S.P.R.," Vol. XV, and "Human Per- 
sonality," Vol. I, p. 360 et seq. Mr. Norman Pearson in his 
recent able and suggestive work, "The Soul and its Story," 
(to which I am glad to draw attention), also gives an abstract 
of this case. But the most important discussion of the whole 
subject is by Dr. W. McDougall, F.R.S., in "Proceedings S.P.R.," 
Vol. XIX. 
I 



Human Personality 137 

tivated, quiet and deeply religious, B 3 was the reverse 
and full of mischief. Later on another personality ap- 
peared B 4, proud, selfish and dignified. B i and B 4 
knew nothing of the others, B 2 knew only B I, but 
B 3 (Sally) knew all the others, was always awake 
and alert to annoy Miss Beauchamp, B i. 

Dr. Morton Prince calls B i the Saint, B 4 the 
Woman, and B 3 the Devil. For Sally made B i tell 
lies, sent her things she detested, and constantly morti- 
fied and distressed the truthful and good B i. No won- 
der Miss Beauchamp wrote, "Oh, Dr. Prince save me 
from myself, from whatever it is that is absolutely 
merciless; I can bear anything but not this mocking 
devil." 

Eventually by hypnotic suggestion, and with the help 
of Sally, all except B 3, became merged into what was 
the original Miss Beauchamp. Sally, B 3, now tended 
to sink out of sight, going back, as she said, "to where 
I came from." Where was that? According to Dr. 
Prince it was the subliminal self of Miss Beauchamp 
for a time developed into an independent personality, 
her other personalities being cleavages from the primary 
conscious self. 

But I agree with Dr. McDougall that Dr. 
Prince's explanation of Sally is unsatisfactory. 
It is using an hypothesis, the subliminal self, 
not even accepted by all psychologists, as a 
mere cloak for our ignorance. Dr. McDougall 
inclines to the view that Sally was a distinct 
psychic being controlling the body of Miss 
Beauchamp. The case of Doris Fischer, 
which in many respects resembles the fore- 



138 Chapter XI 

going, lends support to this view, that occa- 
sionally a human body may be the seat of a 
real invasion from the spirit world, a case of 
obsession. If we admit the spirit hypothesis 
there is nothing improbable in this view. In 
Doris, the invading spirit, if such it were, 
assisted, like Sally, in the cure and ultimate 
restoration of the subject to a normal condi- 
tion, after many years of suffering and peri- 
odical alternations of personality. 

One of the most extraordinary cases of 
changed personality is the following: — 

Lurancy Vennum was an American girl who, at the 
age of 14, became controlled apparently by the spirit 
of Mary Roff, a neighbour's daughter, who had died 
at the age of 19, when Lurancy was only 15 months 
old. The two families lived far apart, except for a 
short time, and had only the slightest acquaintance 
with each other. Nevertheless Lurancy, in her new 
personality, called the RofEs her parents, knew in- 
timate details of their family life, recognised and called 
by name the relatives and friends of the Roffs, knew 
trivial incidents in the life of Mary Roff, and for 
four months really seemed to be a re-incarnation of 
Mary Rolf. 

This brief summary gives an inadequate 
idea of the whole story,' which rests upon 

1 Given in Dr. Stevens' brochure "The Watseka Wonder," 
published at Rochester, U.S.A., and also in "Human Person- 
ality," Vol. I, p. 360 et seq. 



Human Personality 139 

excellent testimony. Dr. Hodgson, who per- 
sonally investigated this case, was of opinion 
that Lurancy was really controlled by the 
spirit of the deceased Mary Rofif. 

Probably few psychologists to-day would 
accept this conclusion, but the vital import- 
ance of an unbiased discussion of cases of 
multiple personality, such as Sally Beau- 
champ, has been pointed out by Dr. W. 
McDougall, F.R.S. We cannot of course 
lightly set aside the weight of evidence which 
shows the apparent dependence of memory 
and therefore of personality, on the persistence 
of the brain and the physical changes pro- 
duced in it by our experience. Nevertheless, 
as Dr. W. McDougall remarks: — 

"If we accept Dr. Prince's description of Sally Beau- 
champ we can only account for her by adopting the 
view that the normal personality consists of body and 
soul in interaction, the soul being not dependent upon 
the brain, or other physical basis, for its memory, 
but having the faculty of retaining and remembering 
among its other faculties. . . . This conclusion would 
give very strong support of the spiritistic explanation 
of such cases as Mrs. Piper, and would go far to justify 
the belief in the survival of human personality after 
the death of the body."^ 

This conclusion will receive additional 
illustration and support in the succeeding 
chapters. 

1 "Proc. S. P. R.," Vol. XIX, p. 430. 



4 



CHAPTER XII 

APPARITIONS 

"Dare I say 
No spirit ever brake the band 
That stays him from the native land, 
Where first he walk'd when claspt in clay?" 
— In Memoriamj xciii. 

We must now pass on from the bizarre and 
perplexing phenomena we have so far dis- 
cussed, to the more important question of the 
evidence spiritualism affords of the continu- 
ance of human life after it has, to all appear- 
ance, ceased in the material body. Before 
entering upon the experimental part of this 
enquiry it is desirable to consider the evidence 
on behalf of survival derived from apparitions 
of the dying and the dead. This aspect of 
our subject meets with wider acceptance, and 
less objection from religious minds, than the 
evidence derived from sittings with some 
medium, which many regard as illegitimate. 
One of the most cautious and philosophical 
among our distinguished men of science of 

140 



Apparitions 141 

the last generation, the late Dr. R. Angus 
Smith, F.R.S., wrote to me, forty years ago, 
that he was not aware of any law of nature, 
except the most obvious, that was sustained 
by so much and such respectable evidence 
as the fact of apparitions about the time of 
death/ In a subsequent interview I learnt 
from him that this opinion was arrived at 
only after long and careful investigation of 
the evidence attainable at that time. Since 
then the Society for Psychical Research has 
obtained a mass of additional and confirm- 
atory evidence, which is incorporated in the 

1 As the whole letter may be of future interest, I give it here 
in full:— 

"Manchester^ 

"October l8th, 1876. 

"My Dear Professor Barrett, — I see you are deep in that 
fascinating study, the action of mind freed from the organism. 
It surprises me much that any man is found to think it of little 
importance, and that any man is found who thinks his own 
opinion so important that he cares for no evidence. I have not 
been able to find a book which contains all the laws of nature 
needed to sustain the world, but some men are easily satisfied. 

"It is difficult to obtain such proofs as men demand for free 
mind. Visions are innumerable, and under circumstances that 
seem to render the sight of the absent, especially about the time 
of death, a reality. I am not aware of any law of nature (except 
the most obvious, such as are seen by common observers) which 
is sustained by so many assertions so well attested, as far as re- 
spectability of evidence goes. The indications we have point out 
to some mighty truth more decidedly than even the aberrations of 
TJranus to the newest of the great planets. If we could prove 
the action of mind at a distance by constant experiment it would 
be a discovery that would make all other discoveries seem trifles. 
—Yours sincerely, R. Angus Smith," 



142 Chapter XII 

tvvo bulky volumes on "Phantasms of the 
Living and Dead" published by the Society. 

In that monumental work, chiefly due to 
the labour and learning of Mr. Edward 
Gurney, the interval between death and the 
apparition of the dying or deceased person 
was limited to 12 hours. First-hand records 
were however received where this interval 
was greatly exceeded, whilst the fact of death 
was still unknown to the percipient at the 
time of his experience. After rigorous scrut- 
iny 134 first-hand narratives are given where 
the coincidence between death and the recog- 
nised "appearance" (whether by a visual or 
auditory experience) of the deceased to a dis- 
tant person, who was not aware of the death, 
is exact, or within an hour; in 39 cases the 
apparition was seen more than an hour, but 
within 12 hours of death, and in 38 cases the 
apparition was seen shortly before death, or 
when death did not follow, though the person 
was seriously ill.^ In 104 cases it was not 
known whether the percipients' experience 
shortly preceded or followed the death; owing 
to this uncertainty these cases were not taken 
into account. 

Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers contributed a 
valuable paper to Vol. V of the "Proceedings 
of the S.P.R.," where additional first-hand 
evidence was given of "apparitions occurring 

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol, V, p. 408, 



Statistical Enquiry 143 

soon after death." This was supplemented by 
a paper Mr. Myers contributed to Vol. VI on 
"apparitions occurring more than a year after 
death," where 14 veridical and recognised 
apparitions are recorded on first-hand 
evidence. 

The result of a critical examination of the 
evidence left no doubt in the mind of any 
student that these apparitions were veridical 
or truth telling, and that their occurrence 
was not due to any illusion of the percipient 
or chance coincidence. As regards this latter, 
to arrive at a statistical proof Mr. Gurney 
obtained a numerical comparison of the 
veridical apparitions with those which were 
purely accidental, i.e. did not coincide with 
death. For this purpose he obtained nearly 
6,000 replies to the question he addressed to 
adults, whether they had had any such ap- 
parition or hallucination during the preced- 
ing ten years. This was followed by a still 
more elaborate census of a similar kind, taken 
by Professor Henry and Mrs. Sidgwick, 
wherein 17,000 replies were received. When 
the relative frequency of veridical to acci- 
dental hallucinations was critically examined 
the possibility of chance coincidence as an 
explanation could be proved or disproved. 
The result showed, in the Sidgwick census 
alone, that the proportion of veridical and 
recognized apparitions (i.e. coincidental 



144 Chapter XII 

cases) to the meaningless (i.e. non-coinci- 
dental cases) was 440 times greater than pure 
chance would give. The elaborate examina- 
tion of this census by experts fills Vol. X. of 
the Proceedings of the S.P.R., and the definite 
but cautiously-expressed conclusion is reached 
that — 

"Between deaths and apparitions of the dying person 
a connection exists which is not due to chance alone. 
This we hold to be a proved fact. The discussion of 
its full implications cannot be attempted in this paper, 
nor, perhaps, exhausted in this age." 

Such a result refutes the common idea that 
it was a mere chance the apparition happened 
to coincide with the death of that particular 
person, and that the hits are remembered and 
the misses forgotten. 

It was found in the course of these lengthy 
enquiries that the number of recognised ap- 
paritions decreases rapidly in the few days 
after death, then more slowly, and after a 
year or more they become far less frequent and 
more sporadic. This indeed might have been 
expected; for on any theory as to the nature 
of these apparitions it is likely that the power 
of communication between the dead and those 
living on earth would lessen as the time of 
transition from this life becomes more and 
more remote. We need not conclude from 
this that the soul of the departed is gradually 



Apparitions 1 45 

extiguished, for we cannot track the course 
of the soul nor know its affinities in the larger 
life beyond. There are, moreover, cases, to 
which we will refer in a later chapter, where 
evidence of survival has been given more than 
a generation after the communicator has 
passed from earth-life. 

Those who have witnessed the apparition 
of a distant deceased friend, of whose death 
they were wholly unaware, or have heard the 
statement at first hand, are far more impressed 
by this single occurrence than by any amount 
of evidence derived from reading reports of 
apparitions. This was the case with myself 
when a young friend of mine narrated to me 
the following account of the apparition she 
experienced; nor did the searching cross- 
examination she was submitted to, at the meet- 
ing of the Psychical Research Society where 
I read the account, shake her testimony in the 
least. The full report will be found in the 
"Journal of the S.P.R." for May, 1908. An 
important feature of this incident is that the 
percipient was at the time at school in a con- 
vent in Belgium, where she had absolutely 
no access to newspapers, or any other sources 
of information which might have suggested 
the apparition. Briefly the case is as follows: 

A gentleman, of some note, shot himself in London 
in the spring of 1907. There can be little doubt that 



146 Chapter XII 

his mind was unhinged at the time by the receipt that 
morning of a letter from a lady that blighted all his 
hopes; before taking his life he scribbled a memorandum 
leaving an annuity to my young friend, who was his 
godchild and to whom he was greatly attached. Three 
days afterwards (on the day of his luneral) he appeared 
to his godchild, who, as stated, was being educated in 
a convent school on the Continent, informing her of 
the fact of his sudden death, of its manner, and of 
the cause which had led him to take his life, and asking 
her to pray for him. 

The mother, anxious to conceal from her daughter 
the distressing circumstances of her godfather's death, 
waited to write until a few days after the funeral, and 
then only stated that her uncle (as he was called) had 
died suddenly. Subsequently, upon meeting her daughter 
on her return from the Continent, the mother was 
amazed to hear not only of the apparition, but that 
it had communicated to her daughter all the circum- 
stances which she had never intended her daughter to 
know. Careful enquiry shows that it was impossible 
for the information to have reached her daughter 
through normal means. 

A member of the S.P.R., Miss Charlton, who kindly 
went to the convent to make enquiries into this case, 
states that the girls in the convent never see any news- 
papers, all letters are supervised, and no one in the con- 
vent seems to have known of the deceased gentleman; 
hence "that any knowledge of her godfather's suicide, 
or of the reason for it, could have reached the per- 
cipient by ordinary channels, cannot be entertained for 
a moment." 

The mother of the percipient, who is a personal 
friend of mine, assured me that neither she nor any 



Apparitions 147 

of her relatives (had they known of the suicide, which 
they did not) wrote to the convent on the matter, ex- 
cept as narrated above. 

Sometimes, as in the foregoing case, the 
phantasm is not only seen but apparently 
heard to speak; sometimes it may announce 
its presence by audible signals. We may re- 
gard such cases as auditory as well as visual 
hallucinations. Rapping was heard as well 
as the apparition seen, in the following case, 
which was investigated by Professor Sidgwick 
in 1892, and the house also visited by Mrs. 
Sidgwick. The percipient was the Rev. 
Matthew Frost of Bowers Gifford, Essex, who 
made the following statement: — 

"The first Thursday in April 1881, while sitting at 
tea with my back to the window and talking with 
my wife in the usual way, I plainly heard a rap at the 
window, and looking round at the window I said to 
my wife, 'Why, there's my grandmother,' and went 
to the door, but could not see anyone; still feeling sure 
it was my grandmother, and knowing, though she was 
eighty-three years of age, that she was very active and 
fond of a joke, I went round the house, but could not 
see anyone. My wife did not hear it. On the follow- 
ing Saturday, I had news my grandmother died in 
Yorkshire about half-an-hour before the time I heard 
the rapping. The last time I saw her alive I promised, 
if well, I would attend her funeral; that was some 
two years before. I was in good health and had no 



148 Chapter XII 

trouble, age twenty-six j^ears. I did not know that 
my grandmother was ill." 

Mrs. Frost writes: — 

"I beg to certify that I perfectly remember all the 
circumstances my husband has named, but I heard and 
saw nothing myself." 

Professor Sidgwick learned from Mr. Frost that the 
last occasion on which he had seen his grandmother, 
three years before the apparition, she promised if pos- 
sible to appear to him at her death. He had no cause 
for anxiety on her account; news of the death came 
to him by letter, and both Mr. and Mrs. Frost were 
then struck by the coincidence. It was full daylight 
when Mr. Frost saw the figure and thought that his 
grandmother had unexpectedly arrived in the flesh and 
meant to surprise him. Had there been a real person 
Mrs. Frost would both have seen and heard; nor 
could a living person have got away in the time, as 
Mrs. Sidgwick found the house stood in a garden a 
good way back from the road, and Mr. Frost im- 
mediately went out to see if his grandmother was really 
there. 

The following case was carefully investi- 
gated, and corroborative evidence obtained, 
by Mr. Ed. Gurney, soon after the experience 
occurred to the narrator, Mr. Husbands^: — 

"September 15th, 1886. 
"The facts are simply these. I was sleeping in a 
hotel in Madeira early in 1885. It was a bright 
moonlight night. The windows were open and the 

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. V, 1889. 



Apparitions 149 

blinds up. I felt some one was m my room. On 
opening my eyes, I saw a young fellow about twenty- 
five, dressed in flannels, standing at the side of my bed 
and pointing with the first finger of his right hand to 
the place I was lying in. I lay for some seconds to 
convince myself of some one being really there. I then 
sat up and looked at him. I saw his features so plainly 
that I recognised them in a photograph which was 
shown me some days after. I asked him what he wanted ; 
he did not speak, but his eyes and hand seemed to, tell 
nft I was in his place. As he did not answer, I struck 
out at him with my fist as I sat up, but did not reach 
him, and as I was going to spring out of bed he slowly 
vanished through the door, which was shut, keeping 
his eyes upon me all the time. 

"Upon enquiry I found that the young fellow who 
appeared to me died in the room I was occupying. 

"John E. Husbands." 

The following letter is from Miss Falkner, 
of Church Terrace, Wisbech, who w^as resi- 
dent at the hotel when the above incident 
happened: — 

"October 8th, 1886. 
"The figure that Mr. Husbands saw while in 
Madeira was that of a young fellow who died unex- 
pectedly some months previously, in the room which 
Mr. Husbands was occupying. Curiously enough, 
Mr. H. had never heard of him or his death. He told 
me the story the morning after he had seen the figure, 
and I recognised the young fellow from the descrip- 
tion. It impressed me very much, but I did not mention 
it to him or any one. I loitered about until I heard 
Mr. Husbands tell the same tale to my brother; we 



150 Chapter XII 

left Mr. H. and said simultaneously, 'He has seen 
Mr. D.' 

"No more was said on the subject for days; then 
I abruptly showed the photograph. Mr. Husbands 
said at once, 'This is the young fellow who appeared 
to me the other night, but he was dressed differently' 
— describing a dress he often wore — 'cricket suit (or 
tennis) fastened at the neck with a sailor knot.' I 
must say that Mr. Husbands is a most practical man, 
and the very last one would expect a 'spirit' to 
visit. 

"K. Falkner." 

On further enquiry it was found that the 
young man who appeared to Mr. Husbands 
had died just a year previously, that the room 
in which he died had subsequently been 
occupied by other visitors, who apparently 
had not seen any apparition, and that it must 
have been February 2nd or 3rd that Mr. 
Husbands took the room and saw the figure. 
Miss Falkner's sister-in-law, who was also at 
the hotel at the time, corroborates the above 
facts, and remembers Mr. Husbands telling 
her the incident; she also gave Miss Falkner 
the photograph of the deceased which Mr, 
Husbands recognized. 

Even if Mr. Husbands had heard of the 
death of Mr. D. and forgotten the circum- 
stance, this would not enable him to recognize 
the likeness when he was shown the photo- 
graph. Mr. Gurney, as I have said, carefully 



Apparitions 15 1 

investigated this case, and saw both Mr. 
Husbands and Miss Falkner, receiving full 
viva voce accounts from each. Mr. Gurney 
remarks : — 

"They are both thoroughly practical and as far re- 
moved as possible from a superstitious love of marvels; 
nor had they any previous interest in this or any other 
class of super-normal experiences. So far as I could 
judge Mr, Husbands' view of himself is entirely cor- 
rect — that he is the last person to give a spurious 
importance to anything that might befall him, or to 
allow facts to be distorted by imagination. As will be 
seen, his account of his vision preceded any knowledge 
on his part of the death which had occurred in the 
room." 

It would extend this book unduly were I to 
give any further selections from the numerous, 
remarkable and well authenticated cases of 
apparitions which are recorded in the 'Pro- 
ceedings of the S.P.R."^ They are in fact so 
common and so generally accepted that the 
chief scepticism regarding them has been as to 
"the ghosts of the clothes" they wore, as in 
the last case. This would be puzzling if they 
were regarded as objective realities, external 
to the percipient. But if we regard appari- 
tions of the dying and dead as phantasms pro- 
jected from the mind of the percipient, the 

1 A few other striking cases are given in Chapter X of my 
book on Psychical Research in the Home University Library. 



152 Chapter XII 

difficulties of clothes, and the ghosts of animal 
pets which sometimes are seen, disappear. 

There is nothing improbable in this sub- 
jective theory of apparitions, for all the things 
we see are phantasms projected from our mind 
into the external world. It is true that a min- 
ute and real inverted picture of the objects 
around us is thrown on the retina by the optical 
arrangements in the eye, but we do not look 
at that picture as the photographer does in 
his camera; it creates an impression on cer- 
tain brain cells, and then we mentally project 
outside ourselves a large erect phantasm of 
the retinal image. It is true this phantasm 
has its origin in the real image on the retina, 
but it is no more a real thing than is the 
virtual image of ourselves we see in a look- 
ing glass. If now, instead of the impression 
being made on certain cells in the brain 
through the fibres of the optic nerve, an 
impression be made directly on those same 
brain cells by some telepathic impact, it may 
reasonably be supposed that a visual reaction 
follows, and a corresponding image would be 
projected by our mind into external space. 

Nor is this pure hypothesis. Actual experi- 
ments in telepathy have been repeatedly made 
where the percipient has seen an apparition 
of the distant person who mentally desired 
his presence to be known. The first success- 
ful attempt at this, under conditions that 



Experimental Phantasms 153 

admit of no dispute, was made in 1881 by a 
personal friend, Mr. S. H. Beard, one of the 
earliest members of the Society for Psychical 
Research. On several occasions Mr. Beard, 
by an effort of his will, was able to cause a 
phantom of himself to appear, three miles 
away, to certain acquaintances who were not 
aware of his intention to make the experiment. 
The phantom appeared so real and solid 
that the percipient thought Mr. Beard himself 
had suddenly come into the room; and on one 
occasion the figure was seen by two persons 
simultaneously. Similar results have been 
obtained by at least nine other persons, inde- 
pendently of each other, living, in fact, in 
different parts of the world, more than one 
carefully conducted and successful experiment 
being made in each case.^ 

Doubtless these apparitions, though appear- 
ing so life-like and substantial, were hal- 
lucinations, but by what process is thought 
able to reproduce itself in a distant mind, and 
thus cause these phantoms to be projected 
from it? Either, thought in A. by some un- 
known means, affects the brain matter in B., 
and so excites the impression, or thought 
exists independently of matter. Whichever 
alternative we take, as Mr. F, W. H. Myers 
says, — 

1 Full details of these cases will be found In Mr. Myers' 
Human Personality, Vol. I, pp. 29a et seq. and pp. 688 et seq. 



154 Chapter XII 

"It is the very secret of life that confronts us here; 
the fundamental antinomy between Mind and Matter. 
But such confrontations with metaphysical problems 
reduced to concrete form are a speciality of our re- 
search; and since this problem does already exist — 
since the brain cells are, in fact, altered either by the 
thought or along with it — we have no right to take 
for granted that the problem, when more closely ap- 
proached, will keep w^ithin its ancient limits, or that 
Mind, whose far-darting energy we are realising, must 
needs be always powerless upon aught but the grey 
matter of the brain." ("Proceedings" S.P.R., Vol. X, 
p. 421.) 

Certainly amongst mankind a conscious 
thought always strives and tends to external- 
ise itselfj to pass from a conception to an 
expression. Creation is the externalised 
thought of God, and this God-like attribute 
we, as part of the Universal Mind, share in a 
partial, limited degree. Our words and ac- 
tions are a constant, though partial embodi- 
ment of our thoughts, effected through the 
machinery of our nervous and muscular sys- 
tems. But without this machinery thought can 
sometimes, as we have shown, transcend its 
ordinary channels of expression, and act, not 
mediately, but directly, upon another mind, 
producing not only visual and auditory im- 
pressions but also physiological changes. 

In fact carefully conducted experiments, 



The Stigmata 155 

some of which I have myself witnessed, have 
shown that startling physiological changes can 
be produced in a hypnotised subject merely 
by conscious or sub-conscious mental sug- 
gestion. Thus a red scar or a painful burn 
can be caused to appear on the body of the 
subject solely through suggesting the idea. 
By some local disturbance of the blood ves- 
sels in the skin, the unconscious self has done 
what it would be impossible for the conscious 
self to perform. And so in the well-attested 
cases of stigmata, where a close resemblance 
to the wounds on the body of the crucified 
Saviour appear on the body of the ecstatic. 
This is a case of unconscious j^//-suggestion, 
arising from the intent and adoring gaze of 
the ecstatic upon the bleeding figure on the 
crucifix. With the abeyance of the conscious 
self the hidden powers emerge, whilst the 
trance and mimicry of the wounds are strictly 
parallel to the experimental cases previously 
referred to. 

May not the effects of pre-natal impressions 
on the offspring (if such cases are proved) 
also have a similar origin? And if I may 
make the suggestion, may not the well-known 
cases of mimicry in animal life originate, like 
the stigmata, in a reflex action, — as physiolo- 
gists would say, — below the level of conscious- 
ness, created to some extent by a predominant 
impression? I venture to think that ere long 



156 Chapter XII 

biologists will recognise the importance of the 
psychical factor in evolution. 

Adaptation to environment is usually a 
slow process spread over countless genera- 
tions, but here also the same causes, inter alia, 
may be at work. Moreover, even rapid 
changes sometimes occur. Thus the beautiful 
experiments of Professor Poulton, F.R.S., 
have shown that certain caterpillars can more 
than once in their lifetime change their colour 
to suit their surroundings. I have seen a 
brilliant green caterpillar acquire a black skin 
when taken from its green environment and 
placed among black twigs. It is no explana- 
tion to say that the nervous stimulus which 
produced these pigmentary deposits is excited 
by a particular light acting on the surface of 
the skin. 

Through what wonder-working power is 
this marvellous change accomplished? Not, 
of course, through any conscious action of the 
caterpillar, for even the pupae of these cater- 
pillars undergo a like change, a light-coloured 
chrysalis becoming perfectly black when 
placed on black paper; even patches of 
metallic lustre, exactly like gold, appear on 
its integument, as I can testify, when the 
chrysalis is placed on gilt paper! Does it 
not seem as if animal life shared with us, in 
some degree, certain super-normal powers, 
and that these colour changes might be due 



Are Apparitions Objective? 1^7 

to the influence of causes somewhat analogous 
to those producing the stigmata, i.e., sug- 
gestion, unconsciously derived from the 
environment? If so, we have here something 
like the externalising of unconscious thought 
in ourselves. 

To return from this digression. Whether 
all apparitions are unsubstantial and sub- 
jective, due to a telepathic impact from the 
living or the dead, I am not prepared to say. 
There are cases which this hypothesis is very 
difficult to cover, where several people have 
witnessed the apparition and where it has 
seemed to have a definite objective existence 
in successive positions. In any case we need 
to be on our guard against pressing the 
telepathic theory to absurd extremes, as some 
psychical researchers seem disposed to do. 

We are in fact, only on the threshold of 
our knowledge of this obscure and difficult 
region of enquiry, and humility of mind no 
less than confidence of hope should be our 
habit of thought. As Sir Oliver Lodge has 
remarked, "Knowledge can never grow until 
it is realised that the question 'Do you believe 
in these things?' is puerile unless it has been 
preceded by the enquiry, 'What do you know 
about them?' " It is invariably those who 
know nothing of the subject who scornfully 
say "surely you don't believe in these things!" 



158 Chapter XII 

There are some remarkable instances where 
the dying person, before the moment of 
transition from earth, appears to see and 
recognise some of his deceased relatives or 
friends. One cannot always attach much 
weight to this evidence, as hallucinations of 
the dying are not infrequent. Here however 
is a case, one of many recorded in that useful 
journal Light, which much impressed the 
physician who narrates it. 

Dr. Wilson of New York, who was present 
at the last moments of Mr. James Moore, a 
well-known tenor in the United States, gives 
the following narrative: — 

"It was about 4 a.m., and the dawn for which he 
had been watching was creeping in through the shut- 
ters, when, as I leant over the bed, I noticed that his 
face was quite calm and his eyes clear. The poor 
fellow looked me in the face, and, taking my hand in 
both of his, he said: 'You've been a good friend to 
me, doctor.' Then something which I shall never for- 
get to my dying day happened, — something which is 
utterly indescribable. While he appeared perfectly 
rational and as sane as any man I have ever seen, the 
only way that I can express it is that he was trans- 
ported into another world, and although I cannot sat- 
isfactorily explain the matter to myself, I am fully 
convinced that he had entered the golden city — for he 
said in a stronger voice than he had used since I had 
attended him: 'There is mother! Why, mother, have 
you come here to see me? No, no, I am coming to 



Visions of the Dying 159 

see you. Just wait, mother, I am almost over. Wait, 
mother, wait, mother!' 

"On his face there was a look of inexpressible hap- 
piness, and the way in which he said the words im- 
pressed me as I have never been before, and I am as 
firmly convinced that he saw and talked with his mother 
as I am that I am sitting here. 

"In order to preserve what I believed to be his con- 
versation with his mother, and also to have a record 
of the strangest happening of my life, I immediately 
wrote down every word he said. It was one of the 
most beautiful deaths I have ever seen." 

Miss Cobbe in her Peak in Darien gives 
another instance of this kind, but the following 
narrative is even more striking. It is vouched 
for by my friend the late Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, who contributed it to the Spec- 
tator. Mr. Wedgwood writes: — 

"Between forty and fifty years ago, a young girl, 
a near connection of mine, was dying of consumption. 
She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition, 
taking no notice of anything, when she opened her 
eyes, and, looking upwards, said slowly, 'Susan — and 
Jane — and Ellen!' as if recognising the presence of 
her three sisters, who had previously died of the same 
disease. Then, after a short pause, 'and Edward, too!* 
she continued, — naming a brother then supposed to 
be alive and well in India, — as if surprised at seeing 
him in the company. She said no more, and sank 
shortly afterwards. In course of the post, letters came 
from India announcing the death of Edward from 



i6o Chapter XII 

an accident, a week or two previous to the death of 
his sister. This was told to me by an elder sister who 
nursed the dying girl, and was present at the bedside 
at the time of the apparent vision." 

This last instance is difficult to explain 
away, if correctly narrated. I am also per- 
sonally acquainted with one or two similar 
cases, which my informants consider too 
sacred to be made public. Several remark- 
able cases of visions of the dying are given in 
the "Proceedings and Journal of the S.P.R.," 
which I regret are too long to be quoted here; 
the reader is specially referred to the follow- 
ing: 'Troc," Vol. Ill, p. 93; V, p. 459, 460; 
VI, p. 294. The evidence seems indisputable 
that, in some rare cases, just before death the 
veil is partly drawn aside and a glimpse of the 
loved ones who have passed over is given to 
the dying person. 



CHAPTER XIII 

AUTOMATIC WRITING: THE EVIDENCE 
FOR IDENTITY 

"Is there an answering voice from the void, 

Or vain and worthless my passionate prayer? 
Are all my hopes for ever destroyed 

In blackness of darkness, depth of despair?" 

—F, W. H. Myers. 

Let US now enquire what further experimental 
evidence is afforded by psychical research 
for survival after death. No candid student 
of the evidence, so carefully sifted in recent 
years, can (in my opinion) resist the conclu- 
sion that there exists an unseen world of in- 
telligent beings, some of whom, as the succeed- 
ing chapters will show, have striven to prove, 
with more or less success, that they once lived 
on earth. It would seem as if the mode in 
which the manifestation of these unseen 
intelligences takes place varies from time to 
time. At one period hauntings and polter- 
geists appear to be most frequent, at another 
apparitions, at another super-normal physical 
phenomena, such as were discussed in the 

i6r 



1 62 Chapter XIII 

earlier chapters; at the present time automatic 
writing appears to be the most common. 

It is interesting to note that automatic 
writing is also one of the oldest recorded 
forms of super-normal communication. More 
than 2,000 years ago it was mentioned by a 
Hebrew seer as follows: "All this the Lord 
made me to understand in writing with His 
hand upon me."^ Automatic messages may 
take place either by the automatist passively 
holding a pencil on a sheet of paper, or by the 
planchette, or by the ''ouija board." In this 
last method an indicator, — which may be a 
small board shaped like a planchette, or any 
other contrivance, — is lightly touched by the 
automatist's fingers and after a time it moves 
more or less swiftly to the different letters 
of the alphabet which are printed on a board 
below or arranged on a table. 

All these modes of communication have the 
objection that the automatist, even when ab- 
solutely above suspicion, may unconsciously 
guide the pencil or indicator; hence the 
necessity for a critical examination of the 
evidence so obtained and of the contents of 
the messages themselves.^ In the first place 
can the communications made through trust- 

1 1. Chronicles xxviii. 19. 

2 The reader will bear in mind that the unseen intelligence may 
be, and probably is in some cases, only the subliminal of the 
medium. 



Automatic Writing 163 

worthy automatists or mediums, be reasonably 
accounted for by thought-transference from 
those who are sitting with the medium, or 
telepathy from other living persons who may 
know some of the facts that are automatically 
written? 

This explanation has indeed been held by 
some investigators; but even assuming the 
fact of thought-transference, of which many 
automatic messages afford an interesting 
confirmation, that only helps us a little 
further; clairvoyance may occur, far-seeing 
as well as far-feeling. Then there is often a 
curious reflection of the prevailing sentiment 
of the community, ''As if" (Professor James 
remarks), "the sub-conscious self was peculi- 
arly susceptible to a certain stratum of the 
Zeit-Geist." "It is conceivable,'' as Mr. 
Myers remarks, 

"that thought transference and clairvoyance may be 
pushed to the point of a sort of terrene omniscience; 
so that to a man's unconscious self some phantasmal 
picture should be open of all that men are doing or 
have done. All this might be, but before such a hypo- 
thesis as this could come within the range of discussion 
by men of science there must be a change of mental 
attitude so fundamental that no argument at present 
could tell for much in the scale." 

But it may be urged that the revival of 
lapsed memories, and of some of the many un- 



164 Chapter XIII 

conscious impressions made on our personal- 
ity, may afford an explanation more in har- 
mony with our present state of knowledge and 
the scientific views of to-day. This uprush of 
past impressions would come as a revelation 
to the subject, unrecognisable as belonging 
to his own past experience, and therefore 
regarded as no part of his own personality, 
but looked at merely with the curiosity and 
fainter interest that attaches to the "not me." 
Moreover, the series of unfamiliar nervous 
discharges, accompanying the emergence of 
new sensations and ideas from previously 
dormant nerve centres, would appear as for- 
eign to the automatist as the reproduction of 
one's voice in the phonograph, or the reflection 
of one's face in a mirror, if heard or seen for 
the first time. The sensation of "otherness" 
thus produced would give rise to the feeling 
of another Ego usurping the body, hence the 
"control"^ would be designated by some 
familiar or chance name other than the sub- 
ject's own, or by a name that appeared to fit 
the ideas expressed. 

But is this explanation sufficient? It may 
be a versa causa, but does it account for all 
the facts that are definitely known about 
double consciousness and about these auto- 
matic and trance communications? Regard- 

^ See p. 242 for definition of this term. 



Automatic Writing 165 

ing the latter, I know that it certainly does not. 
Whilst it disposes of, perhaps, the bulk of the 
messages usually attributed to disembodied 
spirits of Satanic agency, it does not cover all 
the ground. The late Hon. A. Aksakof — a 
distinguished Russian savant — whose opinion, 
formed after a painstaking and life-long study 
of the whole subject, is deserving of the high- 
est respect of scientific men as well as of 
Spiritualists — points out (and the evidence he 
adduces fully bears out his statement), that 
the unconscious self of the medium cannot 
explain all the facts, but that an external and 
invisible agency is occasionally and unmistak- 
ably indicated. The opinion of the Russian 
savant is corroborated by the experience of 
other investigators; for instance, I will cite 
two distinguished and most competent author- 
ities, who have made a careful study of this 
part of our subject. 

In his text-book on ^'Psychology," the late 
Professor W. James, of Harvard, writes 
(p. 214) :— 

I am however, persuaded by abundant acquaintance 
with the trances of one medium that the "control" 
may be altogether different from any possible waking- 
self of the person. In the case I have in mind it pro- 
fesses to be a certain departed French doctor, and is, 
I am convinced, acquainted with facts about the cir- 
cumstances, and the living and dead relatives and ac- 
quaintances, of numberless sitters whom the medium 



1 66 Chapter XIII 

never met before, and of whom she has never heard 
the names, ... I am persuaded that a serious study 
of these trance-phenomena is one of the greatest needs 
of psychology. 

Professor W. James not only speaks with 
authority as an eminent psychologist, but he 
has had unusual opportunities for a careful 
investigation of the case of the well known 
medium Mrs. Piper, to whom he here refers, 
and he reiterates, — in a letter to Mr. Myers, 
published in the "Proceedings of the Society 
for Psychical Research," Vol. VI, p. 658, — 
that:— 

I feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal 
fact in the world that she knows things in her trances 
which she cannot possibly have heard in her waking 
state. 

Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., the other witness 
I will cite, has also made a prolonged study 
of Mrs. Piper, and he fully endorses Professor 
James' opinion; he says: — 

Mrs. Piper's trance personality is undoubtedly (I use 
the word in the strongest sense) aware of much to which 
she has no kind of ordinarily recognised clue, and of 
which she, in her ordinary state, knows nothing. But 
how does she get this knowledge? 

That is the question we have to face, and 
for this purpose what we have to do is to 
collect truth-telling, veridical, messages, and 



Automatic Writing 167 

critically examine whether their contents were 
known to the deceased person and not known 
to the medium, or automatist, nor to the 
sitters. This is now being done, and has 
for many years past been done, by careful and 
skilled investigators connected with the 
English and American Societies for Psychical 
Research. The result has confirmed the opin- 
ion I have long held, and expressed in my 
book A New World of Thought (published 
many years ago), in the following sentences, 
which remain unchanged: — 

There is in my opinion evidence of occa- 
sional communications from those who have 
once lived on earth — not as satisfactory as one 
would wish, and never a complete revelation 
of their personality, but in general affording 
the same trivial and fragmentary presentation 
that we have in our own dreams. But the 
messages are more than the incoherent mut- 
terings of a man in his sleep. Behind them 
there is the same evidence of a combining 
and reasoning power as we have in our own 
normal self-consciousness; evidence of an 
unseen personality, with an intelligence and 
character of its own entirely distinct from that 
of the subject's normal self.^ It has been held 
by some investigators that this person is only 
part of the personality of the medium, the 

1 See the remarkable cases quoted by Mk. Myers in "Proceed- 
ings S. P. R.," Vol. VI, p. 341 et seq. 



1 68 Chapter XIII 

transcendental Ego of the unconscious self; 
but, if so, it is, I am convinced, during trance 
in touch with those who have once lived on 
earth, evidence of some extra-terrene com- 
municator certainly exists, unsatisfactory and 
dream-like though the communication often 
is. As Professor (now Sir Oliver) Lodge has 
pointed out concerning Mrs. Piper when her 
^'control" is asked as to the source of its in- 
formation: — 

"She herself, when in the trance state, 
asserts that she," i.e., her "control," or that 
part of her which calls itself Dr. Phinuit "gets 
it by conversing with the deceased friends and 
relatives of people present .... but even 
when the voice changes and messages come 
apparently from these very people themselves, 
it does not follow that they themselves are 
necessarily aware of the fact, nor need their 
conscious mind (if they have any) have any- 
thing to do with the process."^ 

This opinion Sir Oliver Lodge expressed 
in 1894, but the wider experience we have 
gained in more recent years, especially the 
evidence of "cross correspondence" (to which 
I will refer in a moment), has led all serious 
students of psychical research to the con- 
viction that there is a conscious and designed 
effort on the part of the unseen communi- 
cators to convince us of their survival after 

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. X, pp. 15 and 17. 



Automatic Writing 169 

death. In fact the communications appear to 
fall into two groups, with an indefinite line 
of demarcation between them. In one group, 
the cause appears to be the operation of 
hidden powers that lie wrapped up in our 
present human personality, and which the 
peculiar organisation of the medium renders 
manifest; in the other group the cause 
appears to be the operation of the same 
powers, controlled by uilseen personalities, 
who have once lived on earth, or claim to have 
done so. 

That is to say, the unconscious mind of the 
medium is the instrument from which in the 
former case and through which in the latter 
the messages come. We must not, however, 
conclude that these latter are in every case 
extra-terrene in their origin, for a telepathic 
influence from living and distant persons may 
sometimes be their cause: — as, for instance, 
in the well-known case of Rev. P. H. and Mrs. 
Newnham, where Mrs. Newnham's hand 
automatically wrote answers to questions pre- 
viously written down by her husband, and of 
the purport of which her conscious self was 
wholly ignorant. This shows how necessary 
it is to submit all "spiritualistic" communica- 
tions to the most rigorous scrutiny before de- 
ciding on their probable origin. 

With full knowledge of all these points 



lyo Chapter XIII 

before they passed from earth, both Mr. 
Frederick Myers and Dr. Hodgson were con- 
vinced, from their own personal enquiry, that 
these automatic communications established 
the fact of survival after death. Since these 
pioneers in psychical research entered the 
unseen world, they themselves appear to have 
specially directed many of the communica- 
tions, so as to avoid possible telepathy from 
those on earth, or the emergence of a sub- 
conscious memory on the part of the medium. 
This they have done by making evident the 
presence of a combining and reasoning in- 
telligence, apart from and beyond that of the 
automatist. The significance of the more re- 
cent communications — through Mrs. Piper, 
the late Mrs. Verrall, and several other auto- 
matists — which contain what have been called 
"cross-correspondences" — is precisely this, 
that they seem inexplicable except on the 
recognition that some intelligence, which cer- 
tainly is not the conscious intelligence of any 
incarnate mind, has planned, co-ordinated and 
directed them. 

The intricacy and elaboration of these in- 
cidents makes them difficult to deal with in a 
work like this. But it is impossible to pass 
them by altogether, and an illustration will 
be given later on. They evince not only the 
presence of intelligent and selective direction, 
but also in some cases they contain fresh and 



The Question of Identity 171 

impressive evidence indicative of the identity 
of the intelligence at work. In the last two 
chapters of my little book on Psychical 
Research in the Home University series, I 
have given several instances of these "cross- 
correspondences," and to these chapters the 
reader is referred. It is however very diffi- 
cult to compress into a brief narrative the sub- 
stance of this evidence, and its cogency can 
only be felt by a careful perusal of the lengthy 
papers by Miss Johnson and others published 
in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psy- 
chical Research." 

The enormous difficulty of verifying the 
identity of the intelligence with that of the 
deceased person it professes to be, is vastly 
increased when the claimant is invisible, 
when "personation" seems to be a common 
practice, when telepathy is admitted, and 
when the evidence is of a fitful and fragment- 
ary character. Even in the law-courts we 
have protracted trials, such as the Tichborne 
case, when the sole question at issue is the 
identity of a particular claimant. If the 
identity of the intelligence which communi- 
cates through the medium with a person who 
has once lived on earth can be established, 
even in a single instance, all other questions 
sink into comparative insignificance. Those, 
however, who will take the trouble critically 



172 Chapter XIII 

to examine the ample records of the com- 
munications made through the mediumship 
of Mrs. Piper, which have been published, 
will find that it needs a great deal of ingenuity 
and a great many hypotheses to get rid of the 
inference that we are here, in several instances, 
actually in touch with the veritable persons 
who assert they have once lived on earth, 
and whom we know to have done so. This 
inference is, of course, a matter of individual 
judgment, in which no doubt each person's 
mental bias will come into play, be he as judi- 
cial as he will. 

Here we find a striking illustration that 
our knowledge of each other is to a large ex- 
tent incommunicable to other persons. Those 
who have had repeated sittings with Mrs. 
Piper and other genuine mediums for auto- 
matic writing or speaking, have been con- 
vinced of the survival of friends who have 
passed from earth. On the other hand, those 
who have not had such opportunities, but 
have laboriously read the evidence that has 
been published, may feel its weight and value, 
though they may not attain the confident 
conclusion reached by the investigators them- 
selves. The reason is that we know one 
another not by any verbal testimony of our 
identity but by an instant recognition, either 
from appearance or familiar traits of speech 
or action. If a long absent friend, whom we 



The Question of Identity 173 

may have thought dead, is at the other end 
of a telephone line, and through loss of voice 
unable to speak to us except through an inter- 
mediary, how difficult it would be for him 
to prove his identity. To do this he would 
not talk about current events, but cite trivial 
incidents in his past life which he hoped we 
might remember. This experiment with the 
telephone has actually been made, one person 
trying to identify himself to another at the 
other end of the line. 

As Dr. Hodgson and others have pointed 
out, the best proof of identity is to be found 
in accurate references to incidents of a simple 
nature, that might be recalled by the sitter 
but are unknown to the medium or to the 
public generally. And so we notice that in 
the messages which purport to come from a 
deceased friend, trivial incidents are recalled, 
which are likely to have been unknown to 
any but the sitter. Such communications may 
seem silly and worthless to the general reader 
of the record, but they often carry convic- 
tion to the person receiving them. Illustra- 
tions of this will be given in the succeeding 
chapters. 

We now come to another interesting point: 
if in automatic writing the hand of the auto- 
matist is controlled and guided by some 
discarnate spirit we should expect to find, 



174 Chapter XIII 

and we do sometimes find, words written in 
a language unknown to the writer/ Still 
more striking would be the evidence of super- 
normal guidance if very young children, as 
yet unable to write in their normal state, 
could occasionally have intelligible automatic 
writing coming through them. This, of 
course, involves the possession of psychic 
power by such children, and therefore the in- 
stances are likely to be rare. 

There is however some trustv/orthy evi- 
dence of this kind. Mr. Myers in Human 
Personality (Vol. II, p. 484 et seq.) gives a 
couple of cases which are well attested, 
wherein children, who had not been taught 
writing and could not write a word in their 
normal state, were found to write intelligible 
words automatically. One was a child nearly 
five years old who had not learned a single 
letter of her alphabet, the other a child just 
four years of age who had no knowledge 
whatever of writing. This latter case was in- 
vestigated by Dr. Hodgson, who inspected the 
writings, and which were made with a pencil 
held between the middle fingers of the child's 
left hand. Mr. Myers adds: 'T have seen a 

1 My friend Mr. W. B. Yeats informs me that he has received, 
not through a professional medium, the most conclusive evidence 
of this. Words were given in various languages, e.g., Italian, 
Greek and Latin, known to the controls but utterly unknown to 
the medium. See also "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vols, XIII, p. 
337; XX, p. 30. 



\ 
Automatic Writing 175 

tracing of the last written phrase 'Your Aunt 
Emma.' It is a free scrawl, resembling the 
planchette writing of an adult rather than the 
first effort of a child." The child had an Aunt 
Emma who had died some years before, and 
the child herself died soon after this unex- 
pected message had come through her hand. 
The parents it may be added were not spiritu- 
alists, and the mother testifies that their child 
"had not been taught the alphabet, nor how 
to hold a pencil." 

Further evidence of the super-normal source 
of these automatic messages will be given in 
the next chapter; it is obviously of para- 
mount importance to establish the fact of this 
super-normal source before entering upon the 
discussion of the contents of the messages 
themselves. 



• CHAPTER XIV 

PROOF OF SUPER-NORMAL MESSAGES: 
THE OUIJA BOARD 

"Out of the deep, my child, out of the deep, 
From that true world within the Vv^orld we see, 
Whereof our world is but the bounding shore." 

— Tennyson. 

In the previous chapter reference was made 
to the so-called ouija board, whereby mes- 
sages are communicated through the move- 
ment of a small triangular table, or indicator, 
which runs on three legs tipped with felt. The 
automatists fingers rest lightly on this indi- 
cator, which smoothly glides over the board 
and spells out the messages by pointing to 
one or other of the letters of the alphabet 
printed on the board below. Though this 
method of communication is slow and labori- 
ous it has its advantages. Frequently it is 
successfully used by those who fail to get 
automatic writing with a pencil; moreover 
with patience and practice speed and accuracy 
in indicating the right letters can be obtained. 

176 



The Ouija Board 177 

But the most valuable feature in this method 
of communication is the suppression of any 
sub-conscious guidance of the indicator which 
can be brought about by careful blindfolding 
of the sitters. 

A small private circle of friends of mine 
in Dublin have devoted themselves for a few 
years past to experiments with the ouija 
board and have obtained some remarkable 
results. A joint paper by myself and one of 
the sitters, — the Rev. Savill Hicks, M.A., — • 
was read by the latter before the S.P.R. 
wherein some of the communications were 
given. ^ The sitters found when they were 
carefully blindfolded that the indicator moved 
with as great ease and precision as when they 
could see the letters of the alphabet. Ques- 
tions were promptly answered and the 
indicator often moved so rapidly that their 
hands had some difficulty in keeping pace 
v/ith it: in fact the recorder who took down 
the communications had frequently to resort 
to shorthand. 

I asked the "control" if I might turn round 
the board with its alphabet. Instantly the 
reply was spelt out "Yes, it makes no differ- 
ence." So the sitters, still blindfolded, raised 
the indicator and I turned the board so that 
the alphabet was now upside down to the sit- 

1 See also my paper published In the "Proceedings of the 
American Society for Psychical Research" for September, 1914. 



178 Chapter XIV 

ters, and even could they have seen there 
would have been some difficulty in picking 
out the right letter. But there was not the 
least hesitation, the indicator moved as 
promptly and correctly as before to the right 
letter. I asked could any friend of mine com- 
municate. A message was spelt out from a 
deceased friend, whom I will call Sir John 
Hartley, giving his full Christian and surname 
correctly, and he sent a message to the Dublin 
"Grand Lodge of Freemasons": Sir John 
when on earth had held a very high rank in 
the Masonic order, though this fact was quite 
unknown to the sitters. 

I then asked one of the sitters to allow me 
to take his place, and this I did after being 
securely blindfolded. On putting my fingers 
on the indicator, along with the two other 
sitters, the extraordinary vigour, decision and 
swiftness with which the indicator moved 
startled me, and it seemed incredible that any 
coherent message could be in process of 
delivery. But the recorder had taken down 
the message which came as follows: "The 
same combination must alv/ays work together 
in order to obtain the important messages, 
as it is very tiring unless the same three are 
present; there is one present who is unsuited 
for the receiving." The recorder asked who 
this was and was told that it referred to my- 
self ! It was not until we removed the bandages 



Blindfolded Sitters 179 

from our eyes that any of the sitters knew the 
purport of the messages given/ 

Objection might be made that it is very 
difficult to blindfold a person effectually by 
bandaging the eyes. Although the sitters, 
who were personal friends of mine, declared 
they could see nothing, it was desirable to 
meet this objection. Accordingly opaque eye 
screens were made and fastened over the eyes 
with an elastic cord round the head: a space 
was cut for the nose so that the screen fitted 
closely to the cheeks and forehead, and thus 
resembled the eye screens used by patients 
after an operation for cataract. I tried one 
of these screens and found it pleasanter to use 
than a bandage and absolutely effective in 
preventing vision. But communications came 
just as easily when these screens were worn; 
and a new control unexpectedly came who 
called himself Peter Rooney. 

A new pattern of "board" was now made; 
this consisted of a sheet of plate glass resting 
on a table of the same size, beneath the glass 
&n alphabet was placed, and the indicator, 
which had very short legs tipped with felt, 
now moved more freely over the smooth glass 
surface. The letters of the alphabet were on 

1 It may be well to state here that I myself am not in the 
least psychic, and have never had psychical gifts of any kind ; 
perhaps happily so, as one is better able to preserve a detached 
and critical spirit. 



i8o Chapter XIV 

separate bits of thin card, and could be ar- 
ranged in any way we pleased on the table 
beneath the plate glass. 

A clerical friend, who w^as an interested 
but sceptical enquirer, was invited to be 
present at some of the sittings, and whilst 
the indicator was rapidly spelling out a 
communication through the blindfolded sitters, 
he silently held a large opaque fire screen 
over the moving indicator and alphabet be- 
low; but it made no difference, the message 
went on, though it could only be read by the 
recorder bending his head dovv^n to see be- 
tween the screen and the alphabet. I asked 
my friend, the Rev. W. P. Robertson, M.A., 
to send me a brief report of this sitting, here 
it is : — 

"When present with Sir Wm. Barrett at the sitting 
in question, I observed that the interposition of the 
opaque screen made no appreciable difference in the 
speed at which the message was spelt out, and certainly 
it caused no interruption, much less a cessation of the 
message. The letters of the alphabet were arranged 
in three lines and in order beneath the plate glass. 

It occurred to me that possibly the sitters knew the 
position of each letter, as a good typist knows her key- 
board, though they might be unconscious of the fact 
themselves. I ventured to suggest that the letters be 
jumbled. The sitters agreed and Sir Wm. Barrett and 
I re-arranged the letters at random, the sitters being 
blindfolded all the time. On resuming with the 



Blindfolded Sitters % l8l 

alphabet thus altered, the movement of the indicator 
was at first very slow, it travelled three times in and 
out between the letters and then proceeded to spell out, 
slowly and deliberately: 'There is a disturbing person! 
Here we laughed and asked the 'control' to indicate 
which of us was the culprit — the Professor or the 
clergyman ? 

At this point there occurred what, to my mind, was 
the most impressive feature of the sitting. We all 
expected some sort of answer to this question. The 
shorthand writer said, 'It seems to be writing non- 
sense now.' The 'nonsense' on examination proved 
to be — 'ality in the room.' That is, our question was 
ignored and the 'control' calmly finished what he in- 
tended to sa}^ A second instance of ignoring a question 
and continuing a sentence that we thought had been 
completed, occurred at the same sitting. 

So far as I could judge the blindfolding of the sitters 
was perfect, and their bona fides is to me beyond ques- 
tion. When the opaque screen was held over the board, 
the letters were visible only to the reporter who bent 
down to see underneath the screen. 

W. P. Robertson. 

I have given these details to establish the 
fact that whatever may have been the source 
of the intelligence displayed, it was absolutely 
beyond the range of any normal human 
faculty. As for the numerous messages that 
came through the blindfolded sitters, one from 
the control, Isaac David Solomon, on October 
19th, 1912, — just after the first Balkan war 
had broken out, — ^was as follows: 



1 82 Chapter XIV 

"Blood, blood everywhere in the near East. A great 
nation will fall and a small nation will rise. A great 
religion will stand in danger. Blood everywhere. News 
that will astonish the civilised world will come to hand 
within the next week." 

Now, whatever the source of this message 
it was perfectly true, for within a week after- 
wards the first victory of the Bulgarians at 
Kirk Kilisse was announced and later on, as 
we know, a great nation (Turkey) fell and a 
small nation (Bulgaria) rose; whilst more 
recently Europe has been drenched in blood. 

This control passed and the American- 
Irishman Peter Rooney, persistently intruded 
himself and told us the story of his life and 
recent death. The purport of it was that he 
had lived a wretched and bad life, mostly in 
gaol, and, he added, life at last became so 
unendurable that ten days previously he threw 
himself under a tramcar in Boston and so com- 
mitted suicide. It was only afterwards that 
the blindfolded sitters knew the purport of the 
message, they were laughing and chatting to- 
gether during its delivery. To us lookers-on 
it seemed very incongruous, for the message 
was delivered in the most life-like manner, 
with evident pain and reluctance leading up 
to the tragic conclusion. 

The next day I wrote to the Governor of 
the State Prison at Boston, Mass., to the 



Fictitious Messages 183 

Chief of Police in that city, to the Chief of 
Police at Boston, Lincolnshire, to the dis- 
tinguished corresponding member of the 
S.P.R., Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, U.S.A., 
and to Dr. Hyslop, Hon. Sec. of the American 
S.P.R., asking if any information could be 
given me concerning this Peter Rooney, and 
requesting a reply as soon as possible. 

In the course of a few weeks I obtained 
answers to my enquiries. No man of this 
name was known at Boston in England, no 
Peter Rooney had been in confinement at 
Boston Prison, Mass., and no former inmate 
of that prison had recently committed suicide. 
The chief Inspector of Police at Boston, 
Mass., made a thorough investigation and 
found that no Peter Rooney had been sent to 
prison from Boston, or had been committed 
to the Reformatory, or had committed suicide. 
Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, however, ob- 
tained from the Police Records of Boston that 
a Peter Rooney had fallen from the elevated 
railway in Boston in August, 19 10, had re- 
ceived a scalp wound, was attended by a 
doctor, laid up for a month, and was still living 
in his home, York Street, Boston. It was 
probably only a chance coincidence that a 
man of the same name had met with an acci- 
dent in Boston. 

The whole elaborate story was therefore 
fictitious, and characteristic of the dramatic 



184 Chapter XIV 

inventions, like externalised dreams, which so 
often come through these automatic channels, 
and which are so misleading to the novice and 
so productive of mischief to the credulous. 

Nevertheless other messages subsequently 
came through another control, giving names 
and addresses of two persons recently deceased 
in England, which on investigation proved to 
be perfectly correct; though the names were 
entirely unknown to myself or any of the 
sitters. Such is the curious mixture of truth 
and fiction which these automatisms so 
frequently display. I have not space to give 
details of these two cases, but will cite a later 
and remarkably veridical communication that 
came through the ouija board in Dublin. 
The sitters in this case were not blindfolded, 
one was the same lady who took part in the 
former sittinj^s, the wife of a well-known 
Dublin physician and daughter of the late 
Professor Dowden, Mrs. Travers Smith. The 
other was her friend, Miss C, the daughter of 
a medical man, and evidently possessing great 
psychic power. 

THE PEARL TIE-PIN CASE. 

Miss C, the sitter, had a cousin an officer with our 
Army in France, who was killed in battle a month 
previously to the sitting: this she knew. One day 
after the name of her cousin had unexpectedly been 
spelt out on the ouija board, and her name given in 



The Pearl Tie-Pin 185 

answer to her query "Do you know who I am?" the 
following message came: — 

"Tell mother to give my pearl tie-pin to the girl 
I was going to marry, I think she ought to have it," 
When asked what was the name and address of the 
lady both were given, the name spelt out included 
the full Christian and surname, the latter being a very 
unusual one and quite unknown to both the sitters. 
The address given in London was either fictitious or 
taken down incorrectly, as a letter sent there was 
returned, and the whole message was thought to be 
fictitious. 

Six months later, however, it was discovered that 
the officer had been engaged, shortly before he left for 
the front, to the very lady, whose name was given; 
he had however told no one. Neither his cousin nor 
any of his own family in Ireland were aware of the 
fact and had never seen the lady nor heard her name, 
until the War Office sent over the deceased officer's 
effects. Then they found that he had put this lady'3 
name in his will as his next of kin, both Christian and 
surname being precisely the same as given through the 
automatist; and what is equally remarkable, a pearl 
tie-pin was found in his effects. 

Both the ladies have signed a document they sent 
me, affirming the accuracy of the above statement. The 
message was recorded at the time, and not written 
from memory after verification had been obtained. Here 
there could be no explanation of the facts by subliminal 
memory, or telepathy or collusion, and the evidence 
points unmistakably to a telepathic message from the 
deceased officer. 



1 86 Chapter XI K 

Other remarkable evidential cases came 
through the ouija board. One was on the 
occasion of the sinking of the Lusitania, and 
Mrs. Travers Smith has kindly furnished me 
with the following report: — 

THE HUGH LANE CASE. 

"On the evening of the day on which news had come 
that the Lusitania was reported sinking, Mr. Lennox 
Robinson and I sat at the ouija board; the Rev. Savill 
Hicks taking the record. We did not know that Sir 
Hugh Lane was on board. We were both personal 
friends of his, and knew he was in America, but had 
no idea he was coming back so soon. 

"Our usual 'control' came and then the words 'Pray 
for the soul of Hugh Lane.' I asked 'Who is speaking?' 
the reply was 'I am Hugh Lane.' He gave us an 
account of the sinking of the ship and said it was 'a 
peaceful end to an exciting life.' At this point we 
heard the stop-press evening paper called in the street 
and Mr. Robinson ran down and bought a paper. I 
went out of the room to meet him, and he pointed to 
the name of Sir Hugh Lane among the passengers. 
We were both much disturbed, but continued the sit- 
ting. Sir Hugh gave me messages for mutual friends 
and ended this sitting by saying 'I did not suffer, I 
was drowned and felt nothing.' 

"At subsequent sittings he spoke of his will, but 
never mentioned the codicil now in dispute. He 
hoped no memorial would be erected to him in the 
shape of a gallery or otherwise, but was anxious about 
his pictures. The messages were always coherent and 



Sir Hugh Lane 187 

evidential and always came through Mr. Robinson and 
me. 

(Signed) Hester Travers Smith/' 

This is a very evidential case, for no in- 
formation of the death of Sir Hugh Lane was 
given until some days later. 

Another veridical message, through the 
same sitters, came to a friend of mine who 
was in profound distress through the death in 
battle of his son, an officer w^th our army in 
France. This message, together with others, 
he obtained later on through a lady in London, 
who knew nothing of my friend beforehand, 
absolutely convinced him of the identity of 
his son and of his survival after death. The 
result was a very happy one; from almost 
heartbroken grief he is now in serene and 
perfect confidence of his son's survival. 

Besides the foregoing group of sitters, a 
well-known and esteemed member of the 
Society of Friends and friend of mine in 
Dublin, has for several years past had a small 
private circle of sitters with the ouija board. 
He has thus obtained some thousands of com- 
munications, chiefly from deceased members 
of his family, which have demonstrated to 
him the fact of their survival after death, and 
thus afforded great consolation to himself and 
other stricken friends. These communications 
are not evidential to an outsider, but they 



1 88 Chapter XIV 

give some remarkable statements as to the 
conditions of life and occupation in the unseen 
world, which are more or less in accordance 
with similar communications (unknown to 
these sitters) obtained by others. 

A digest of the spirit teachings coming 
through a medium in America who is much 
esteemed by Dr. Hyslop, has lately been pub- 
lished by Mr. Prescott Hall in the "Journal 
of the American Society for Psychical Re- 
search" for November and December, 191 6. 
As Mr. Hall points out, if we find on collating 
a number of communications through differ- 
ent mediums, of different training, in different 
countries, that they substantially agree upon 
certain facts as to the nature and conditions 
of spirit life, the result may be of interest and 
value. 

But this will depend upon the fact whether 
the descriptions given are not to be found in 
spiritistic literature and therefore not likely to 
be the common opinion of mediums generally. 
Unfortunately it is usual to find such descrip- 
tions are only a reflection of the medium's 
own opinions and reading, and therefore the 
product of the memory or sub-conscious im- 
pressions of the medium. This is conspicu- 
ous when attempts at scientific or philoso- 
phical disquisitions are made by the medium, 



spirit Teachings 189 

which rarely exhibit anything more than the 
grotesque assertions of an ignorant mind. 
Mr. Prescott Hall, however, is doing good 
service in classifying these spirit teachings, 
examining their source and testing their con- 
sistency. 

By far the most remarkable and interesting 
collection of "Spirit Teachings" was pub- 
lished some years ago by the late Rev. Stainton 
Moses (M.A., Oxon), to whom reference has 
already been made. These were given 
through his own mediumship and are well 
worth careful perusal, together with his book 
on "Spirit Identity and the higher aspects of 
Spiritualism." 

In the next chapter will be found some 
glimpses of the spirit world obtained through 
two ladies, neither of whom were spiritualists ; 
one was a personal friend, and both were of 
unimpeachable veracity. 



CHAPTER XV 

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL 
AFTER DEATH 

"The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, 
In the sight of the unwise they seem to die and their 
departure is taken for misery and their going away from 
earth to be utter destruction — but they are in peace."^ 

The super-normal character of many of the 
communications that reach us through the 
medium or automatist having been established, 
let us now turn to further evidence of sur- 
vival and of the identity of the discarnate in- 
telligence, together with occasional glimpses 
of their condition after death. 

Some years ago I was staying at a friend's 
house in the country, which I will call Haw- 
thorn Manor, and found that my hostess, 
Mrs. E. — the wife of a lawyer holding a 
responsible official position, and herself a 
matronly lady of great acumen and common- 
sense, the centre of a circle of religious and 
charitable activity — had accidently discovered 

^ From the Wisdom of Solomon, iii, 1-3. 
190 



Evidence of Survival 191 

that her hand was occasionally Impressed by 
some power she could not control. Long mes- 
sages, the purport of which were at the time 
unknown to her, were thus written. 

The curious feature of this automatic writ- 
ing was that it came on her suddenly; when 
writing up some household accounts she fell 
into a dreamy or semi-trance-like state, and 
then felt the fingers of another hand — belong- 
ing apparently to an invisible person seated 
opposite to her — laid on her right hand, and a 
sudden vigorous scribbling ensued. But the 
writing was all upside down, each line begin- 
ning at her right hand side of the page, and 
could only be read by turning the page round. 
Mrs. E. assured me, and I have no reason to 
doubt her word, that it was quite impossible 
for her to write a single word correctly in this 
way in her normal state. Anyone who will 
make the attempt will find how difficult such 
a mode of writing is to execute, especially in 
the clear and characteristic caligraphy, which 
here occurred. 

Mrs. E. was not a spiritualist and had no 
knowledge of the subject, in fact rather an 
aversion to it. Hence no serious attention was 
given to this abnormal writing until a message 
came containing certain specific statements, 
wholly outside the knowledge of herself or 
husband, which they subsequently discovered 
to be perfectly true incidents in the life of a 



192 Chapter XV 

deceased relative, who asserted he was present 
and guiding the lady's hand. Other com- 
munications followed, which also were veri- 
fied. Then on another evening came the 
instance to which I have referred as affording 
proof of identity. 

THE CHATHAM CASE 

In this case the communicating intelligence was un- 
known to Mrs. E. The circumstances, written down 
at the time, were as follows: — A cousin of my hostess, 
an officer in the Engineers, named B., was paying a 
visit to Hawthorn Manor. I was not present, but the 
facts were sent, to me; some, indeed, came under my 
own knowledge. B. had a friend, a brother officer. 
Major C, who died after B. left Chatham, and to 
whose rooms in the barracks he frequently went to 
play on C.'s piano, both being musical: of this Mrs. E. 
assured me she knew absolutely nothing. At the sit- 
ting in question, much to B.'s amazement, for he was 
quite ignorant of spiritualism, the Christian name and 
surname of Major C. were unexpectedly given, fol- 
lowed by the question, addressed to B., "Have you 
kept up your music?" Then came some private mat- 
ter of a striking character, when suddenly the unseen 
visitant interjected the question, "What was done with 
the books?" "What books?" was asked. "Lent to 
me," was C.'s reply. "Who lent you the books?" 
The reply came at once, "A — ," giving the name of 
another brother officer, of whose existence Mrs. E. was 
also wholly unaware. "Shall I write to ask A — if 
he has them?" B. asked. "Yes," was the reply. All 
present assert on their word of honour they knew of 



The Chatham Case 193 

no such loan, nor was the officer named in any of 
their thoughts, nor had Mrs. E. ever heard A — *s name 
mentioned before. 

A — was written to, and the question about the 
books incidentally asked, but in reply that came some 
time after no notice was taken of the question. Two 
months later, however, B. accidentally met his friend 
A — , when, in the course of conversation on other 
matters, A — suddenly exclaimed: "That was a rum 
thing you asked me about in your letter; I mean about 
Major C. and the books. I did lend him some books, 
but I don't know what became of them after his 
death." 

An objector might urge that it is conceiv- 
able B. might once have seen some books 
belonging to A — in Major C.'s room, and 
afterwards forgotten the fact, and that this 
latent memory had telepathically (and uncon- 
sciously to all concerned) impressed Mrs. E., 
but obviously this explanation will not cover 
other cases, some of which I will cite. For 
these some more elaborate hypothesis must be 
invented, and our ingenuity becomes severely 
taxed when we remember that these are only 
stray illustrations of a growing mass of sifted 
evidence pointing in the direction of survival 
after death. Much of this evidence has been 
published, but other cases are privately known 
to me, and each case requires new and often 
absurd assumptions if we attempt to explain 
it away. 



194 Chapter XV 

I win now cite some further illustrations 
of the automatic script that came through 
my friend Mrs. E.'s hand, and in the earlier 
stages came in the wonderful manner already 
mentioned. The remarkable point being that 
Mrs. E. did not know what her hand had 
written until the paper was turned completely 
round and the message read. I know of no 
other case where messages were written in 
this inverted script, though there may be such. 
"Mirror writing" is not uncommon, that is 
messages written (as postcards are sometimes 
written) in a script which can only be read 
when viewed in a mirror; this art is not so 
difficult to acquire as inverted writing. 

The following communications are also 
unlike the usual type, inasmuch as they give 
us a glimpse, — if they are really veridical, — 
of the state of the soul immediately after 
death. Mrs. E. assured me that these mes- 
sages were quite foreign to her thoughts, and 
entirely beyond her ability to compose. She 
had lost during the preceding winter a dearly 
loved brother, who was studying at an en- 
gineering college near London. A friend of 
his, who had been a sufferer, had pre-deceased 
him, but no thought of this friend was in 
Mrs. E.'s mind when one evening her hand 
wrote : — 

"I want you to believe your friends live still and 
can think of you. . . . On opening the eyes of my 



Survival after Death 195 

spiritual body I found myself unaltered, no terror, 
only a strange feeling at first, then peace, a comforted 
heart, love, companionship, teaching. I am [giv- 
ing here his full name], and have vv^ritten this, but 

your brother [giving the name] is here and v^^ants 

to speak to you." 

After an interval Mrs. E. felt her hand 
again impelled to write, and the following 
message came: — 

"I am here [giving her brother's name] and want 
to tell you about my awakening into spirit life. I was 
at first dimly conscious of figures moving in the room 
and round the bed. Then the door was closed and 
all was still. I then first perceived that I was not 
lying on the bed, but seemed to be floating in the air 
a little above it. I saw in the dim light the body 
stretched out straight and with the face covered. My 
first idea was that I might re-enter it, but all desire 
to do this soon left me — the tie was broken. I stood 
upon the floor, and looked round the room where I 
had been so ill and been so helpless, and where I 
could now once more move without restraint. The 
room was not empty. Close to me was my father's 
father [giving the name correctly]. He had been with 
me all through. There were others whom I love now, 
even if I did not know much of them then. I passed 
out of the room, through the next, where my mother 

and were [relatives still in this life], I tried to 

speak to them. My voice was plain to myself, and 
even loud, yet they took no notice of all I could say. 
I walked through the college rooms; much blackness 



196 Chapter XV 

but some light. Then I went out under the free 
heavens. I will write more another sitting — power too 
weak now. Good-night." [His signature follows.] 

At another sitting, a night of two later, the 
same name was written, and the thread of the 
preceding narrative was abruptly taken up 
without any preface: — 

"I saw the earth lying dark and cold under the 
stars in the first beginning of the wintry sunrise. It 
was the landscape I knew so well, and had looked at 
so often. Suddenly sight was born to me ; my eyes 
became open. I saw the spiritual world dawn upon 
the actual, like the blossoming of a flower. For this 
I have no Vv^ords. Nothing I could say would make 
any of you comprehend the wonder of that revelation, 
but it will be j'ours in time. I was drawn as if by 
affinity to the world which is now mine. But I am 
not fettered there. I am much drawn to earth, but by 
no unhappy chain. I am drawn to those I love; to the 
places much endeared." 

These messages are deeply Interesting: some 
of them were written in my presence and, as 
I have stated, Mrs. E. in her normal waking 
consciousness was convinced she could not 
have composed them. But the subliminal 
self, the up rush of which Mr. Myers has 
suggested lies at the root of genius, has gifts 
far beyond the power of the normal self and 
it is possible, though not in my opinion prob- 
able, that these communications are only the 



Survival after Death 197 

dramatised products of Mrs. E.'s own hidden 
and unsuspected powers. This explanation, 
however, fails to account for the veridical 
messages that came through Mrs. E., giving 
information beyond the knowledge of any 
persons present; nor can it explain many of 
the communications that have come through 
other automatists, such as the other cases 
already cited and those which follow. 

But why should we think it so extravagant 
to entertain the simplest explanation — that 
occasionally a channel opens from the unseen 
world to ours, and that some who have 
entered that world are able to make their 
continued existence known to us? Why 
some, we cannot tell. And why so paltry a 
manifestation? But is anything paltry that 
manifests life? 

In the dumb agony which seizes the soul 
when some loved one is taken from us, in the 
awful sense of separation which paralyses us 
as we gaze upon the lifeless form, there comes 
the unutterable yearning for some voice, some 
sign from beyond; and if, in answer to our 
imploring cry for an assurance that our faith 
is not in vain, that our dear one is living still, 
a smile were to overspread the features of the 
dead, or its lips to move, or even its finger 
to be lifted, should we deem any action a 
paltry thing that assures us death has not yet 



198 Chapter XV 

ended life, and still more that death will not 
end all? 
Though it be 

"Only a signal shown and a voice from out of the 
darkness," 

it is not paltry! Only the dead in spirit care 
not for the faintest, the rudest sign that as- 
sures us, who are "slow of heart to believe in 
all that the prophets have spoken," that the 
soul lives freed from the flesh, that the indi- 
vidual mind and memory remain, though the 
clothing of the body and brain be gone. 

And it is just this natural human longing 
that renders a dispassionate consideration of 
the facts, a calm and critical weighing of the 
evidence, so difficult and yet so imperative. 
This is now being done, as the following case 
illustrates, with a care that grows by experi- 
ence, and with an honesty that none can 
dispute. 

MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPTS 

Some of the most remarkable automatic 
scripts, — which have been discussed with 
critical acumen by the Research Officer of the 
S.P.R., — came to a lady of education and 
social position resident in India. This lady 
was not a spiritualist, and at the time had no 
acquaintance with the members of the Society 



Mrs. Holland's Scripts 199 

for Psychical Research. As her family dis- 
liked the whole subject she prefers to be 
known under the pseudonym of "Mrs. FIol- 
land." Subsequently, on her return to Eng- 
land, she became personally known to and 
esteemed by many of the leaders and officials 
of the S.P.R. Her attention having been 
once casually drawn to the subject of auto- 
matic writing she tried the experiment and 
to her surprise found her hand WTote both 
verse and prose without any volition on her 
part; the first messages were headed by the 
impromptu lines: — 

"Believe in what thou canst not see, 
Until the vision come to thee." 

Mrs. Holland says she remains fully con- 
scious during the writing, "but my hand 
moves so rapidly that I seldom know what 
I am writing." Her interest in the subject 
increased and she obtained and read Mr. 
Myers' monumental work Human Personal- 
ity, which w^as published after Mr. Myers' 
death. Though she did not know the author, 
it was natural that much of her automatic 
script purported to be inspired by him. A 
careful study of the messages so inspired has 
compelled the belief that the spirit of Mr. 
Myers really did control some of these mes- 
sages. Here for instance is a very character- 



200 Chapter XV 

istic communication purporting to come from 
Mr. Myers:— 

"To believe that the mere act of death enables a 
spirit to understand the whole mystery of death is as 
absurd as to imagine that the act of birth enables an 
infant to understand the whole mystery of life. I 
am still groping — surmising — conjecturing. The ex- 
perience is different for each one of us. . . . One was 
here lately who could not believe he was dead ; he 
accepted the new conditions as a certain stage in the 
treatment of his illness." 

Then follows, not quite verbally correct, the 
first two lines of Mr. Myers' poem St. Paul — 
a poem which Mrs. Holland declares she had 
never read and of which she knew nothing 
whatever. Of course it is possible that she 
had somewhere seen these lines quoted, though 
she has no recollection of this. The auto- 
matic script is as follows: — 

"Yea, I am Christ's — and let the name suffice ye — 
E'en as for me He greatly hath sufficed.^ If it were 
possible for the soul to die back into earth life again 
I should die from sheer yearning to reach you — to tell 
you all that we imagined is not half wonderful enough 
for the truth — that immortality, instead of being a 
beautiful dream, is the one, the only reality, the strong 
golden thread on which all the illusions of all the 

iThe actual lines in Mr. Myers' St. Paul are: 

"Christ! I am Christ's! and let the name suffice you, 
Ay, for me too He greatly hath sufficed." 



Mrs. Holland's Scripts 201 

lives are strung. If I could only reach 3'ou — if I could 
only tell you — I long for power, and all that comes 
to me is an infinite yearning — an infinite pain. Does 
any of this reach you, reach anyone, or am I only 
wailing as the wind wails — wordless and unheeded?" 
Proceedings, S.P.R., Vol. XXI, p. 233. 

On another occasion the Myers control 
wrote : — 

"It may be that those who die suddenly sufifer no 
prolonged obscuration of consciousness, but for my 
own experience the unconsciousness was exceedingly 
prolonged." 

And again, 

"The reality is infinitely more wonderful than our 
most daring conjectures. Indeed, no conjecture is suffi- 
ciently daring." 

The hypothesis that these messages are due 
to dramatic creations of Mrs. Holland's sub- 
liminal self becomes increasingly difficult to 
believe when we find other wholly different 
types of messages purporting to come from 
Mr. Ed. Gurney and the Hon. Roden Noel, 
who were also entirely unknown to Mrs. 
Holland. When they were on earth I knew 
these distinguished men personally, and was 
in frequent correspondence with each of them; 
hence from my own knowledge I can affirm 
that these communications are singularly 



202 Chapter XV 

characteristic of the respective and diverse 
temperaments of each. 

But there was more than this, for not only 
was some very striking blank verse written 
by the Roden Noel control, but mention is 
made of places and persons associated with 
Mr. Roden Noel that were unknown to Mrs. 
Holland. In fact the automatist did not 
know who was controlling her hand when it 
wrote : — 

"I was always a seeker, — until it seemed at times 
as if the quest was more to me than the prize, — only 
the attainments of my search were generally like rain- 
bow gold, alway beyond and afar. . . I am not op- 
pressed with the desire that animates some of us to 
share our knowledge or optimisms with you all before 
the time. The solution of the great Problem I could 
not give you — I am still very far away from it; the 
abiding knowledge of the inherent truth and beauty 
into which all the inevitable ugliness of existence finally 
resolve themselves will be yours in time." 

Preceding this had come the following: — 

"This is for A.W., ask him what the date, May 26th, 
1894, meant to him — to me — and to F.W.H. I do 
not think they will find it hard to recall, but, if so, 
let them ask Nora." 

Here it is to be noted Mrs. Holland, who 
was in India, knew nothing of Dr. A. W. 



Mrs. Holland* 5 Scripts 203 

Verrall, whose name is suggested by the 
initials A.W., nor that Mrs. Sidgwick was 
called Nora (her Christian name being 
Eleanor) but the whole context eventually 
suggested to Miss Johnson (the Research 
Officer of the S.P.R.) , to whom the script was 
sent, a message from Roden Noel, who was 
known both to Dr. Verrall, Mr. F. W. H. 
Myers, and Mrs. Sidgwick. Miss Johnson 
adds: "It was appropriate we should be told 
to ask Nora (Mrs. Sidgwick) if we could not 
find out for ourselves, since he (Roden Noel) 
was an intimate friend of Dr. Sidgwick." 
Now the date given was preceisely that of the 
death of Roden Noel. Though Mrs. Holland 
thought she may have once seen some poems 
of Mr. Noel's, she knew nothing of him per- 
sonally nor of the date of his death. 

The fetish of subliminal or telepathic 
knowledge is here hard to invoke and becomes 
absurd when we find one of the earliest of 
Mrs. Holland's scripts, written in India and 
purporting to come from Mr. Myers, gives a 
minute and lengthy description of an elderly 
gentleman, which ends up as follows: — 

"It is like entrusting a message on which infinite 
importance depends to a sleeping person. Get a proof, 
— try for a proof if you feel this is a waste of time 
without. Send this to Mrs. Verrall, 5, Selwyn Gardens, 
Cambridge." 



204 Chapter XV 

When this script was received by Miss 
Johnson she at once recognised the description 
as resembling Dr. Verrall, and Mrs. Verrall's 
address given was perfectly correct. Further, 
when the script was shown to Mrs. Verrall 
she said the whole description was remarkably 
good and characteristic of her husband, who 
was then living. Mrs. Verrall, who now alas! 
has also passed into the unseen, states that 
no portrait or description of her husband had 
ever been published, nor was her address 
given in "Human Personality," which, as 
stated, Mrs. Holland had read. On being 
questioned Mrs. Holland declared she had 
never seen, and had no conception of Mrs. 
Verrall's address. Of the good faith of Mrs. 
Holland there is no doubt whatever, and she 
herself was most anxious to find out whether 
any of her automatic writing came from her 
sub-conscious memory. 

Other very remarkable cases of super- 
normal knowledge in Mrs. Holland's script 
are described in Miss Johnson's long memoir 
in the Proceedings of the S.P.R., one in par- 
ticular is worth noting. Mrs. Holland's hand 
wrote, on January 17th, 1904, — purporting to 
be under the control of Mr. Myers: — 

"The sealed envelope is not to be opened yet. I 
am unable to make your hand form Greek characters 
and so I cannot give the text as I w^ish — only the 



Cross-Correspondence 205 

reference — i Cor. xvi., 12 ['Watch ye, stand fast in 
the faith, quit you like men, be strong']. Oh I am 
feeble with eagerness. How can I best be identified ! 
It means so much apart from the mere personal love 
and longing. Edmund's [Mr. Ed Gurney] help is not 
here with me just now. I am trying alone amid un- 
speakable difficulties." 

Now Mrs. Sidgwick had asked Mrs. Ver- 
rall, who was also a remarkable automatist, as 
a test to give a favourite text of her husband's 
and a fairly satisfactory anfr,ver was obtained; 
of this Mrs. Holland knew absolutely nothing, 
but on the very same day, Jan. 17th, 1904, 
that Mrs. Verrall's script in Cambridge made 
references to a sealed letter and to a text, 
Mrs. Holland's hand in India automatically 
wrote the message just quoted. The text 
I Cor. 16, 12, was not the one asked for by 
Mrs. Sidgwick, but it is the one inscribed 
in Greek over the gateway of Selwyn College, 
Cambridge, which Mr. Myers constantly 
passed, and on which, owing to a slight verbal 
error in the Greek inscription, Mr. Myers had 
more than once remarked to Mrs. Verrall. 
Mrs. Holland had never been in Cambridge, 
had no connection with the University, and 
knew absolutely nothing of the Greek inscrip- 
tion on the gateway of Selwyn College. 

The text incident may be an example of 
what has been already referred to as "cross- 
correspondence," that is two widely separated 



2o6 Chapter XV 

automatists, giving somewhat similar replies, 
or giving a sentence the meaning of which 
is unintelligible until it is supplemented by a 
further communication through another auto- 
matist, who has no knowledge of the other 
fragmentary message. All this looks as if a 
single unseen personality controlled the two 
automatists, in order to avoid any explanation 
by telepathy or the subliminal self. The 
interesting point being, as I have pointed out 
already, that only since the death of Mr. 
Myers and Dr. Hodgson, — who were familiar 
with this favourite method of explaining away 
the significance of these messages, — have 
numerous cases of cross-correspondence arisen 
among independent and widely separated 
automatists. 



CHAPTER XVI 

EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY IN THE 
DISCARNATE 

"The Ghost in man, the Ghost that once was man 
But cannot wholly free itself from man, 
Are calling to each other thro' a dawn 
Stranger than earth has ever seen; the veil 
Is rending and the voices of the day 
Are heard across the voices of the dark." 

— Tennyson. 

These well-known lines of our great poet 
are to-day receiving ampler confirmation than 
was thought possible a generation ago. In 
the present chapter I will cite some remark- 
able evidence of survival obtained through 
personal friends of my own. 

I have previously given illustrations of 
the wonderful mediumistic power of the Rev. 
Stainton Moses and of the high regard in 
which he was held. No one who knew him 
could for a moment doubt, as Mr. Myers says, 
"his sanity or his sincerity, his veracity or 
his honour," and those who knew him person- 
ally, as I did, could understand the esteem and 

207 



2o8 Chapter XVI 

affection which his colleagues at University 
College School and his intimate friends al- 
ways felt for him. I will here briefly narrate 
two remarkable cases in favour of the identity 
of the soi-disant spirit which came through 
Mr. Moses. These cases are well known to 
those familiar with the literature of spiritual- 
ism, but may not be known to many of my 
readers: — 

THE ABRAHAM FLORENTINE CASE. 

In August, 1874, Mr. Moses was staying with a 
friend, a medical man, in the Isle of Wight, and at 
one of the "sittings" which they had together a 
communication was received with singular impetuosity 
purporting to be from a spirit who gave the name 
Abraham Florentine, and stated that he had been en- 
gaged in the United States war of 18 12, but only 
lately had entered into the spiritual world, having died 
at Brooklyn, U.S.A., on August 5th, 1874, at the age 
of eighty-three years, one month, and seventeen days. 
None present knew of such a person, but Mr. Moses 
published the particulars as above stated in a London 
newspaper, asking at the same time American journals 
to copy, so that, if possible, the statement made might be 
verified or disproved. 

In course of time an American lawyer, a "claim- 
agent," who had been auditing the claims of soldiers in 
New York, saw the paragraph, and wrote to an Ameri- 
can newspaper to say that he had come across the_, 
name A. Florentine, and that a full record of the 
person who made the claim could be obtained from the 
U.S. Adjutant-General's office. Accordingly the head- 



Abraham Florentine Case 209 

quarters of the U.S. army was applied to, and an official 
reply was received, stating that a private named 
Abraham Florentine had served in the American war 
in the early part of the century. Ultimately the widow 
of Abraham Florentine was found to be alive. 

Dr. Crowell, a Brooklyn physician, by means of a 
directory, discovered her address in Brooklyn, and 
saw and questioned the widow. She stated that her 
husband had fought in the war of 18 12, that he was 
a rather impetuous man, and had died in Brooklyn 
on August 5th, 1874, ^^^ that his eighty-third birth- 
day was on the previous June 8th. He was therefore 
eighty-three years, one month, twenty-seven days old 
when he died, the only discrepancy being seventeen 
for twenty-seven days, a mistake that might easily 
have arisen in recording the message made through Mr. 
Moses when entranced in the isle of Wight. Full 
details of this case were published in Vol, XI of the 
"Proceedings of the S.P.R." 

What are we to say to this evidence? The 
newspaper files remain to attest the facts, 
which seem to be absolutely irrefragable. 
The only surmise that can be made is that 
Mr. Moses had seen some notice of the man's 
death and career in an American newspaper, 
and either had forgotten the fact or had pur- 
posely deceived his friends. But then, this 
could only have been one of many similar 
cases of forgetfulness or deception, and before 
we can assume this we have to prove that Mr. 
Moses did obtain the required information 
by means of newspapers or other mundane 



2IO Chapter XVI 

channels of information. This Mrs. Moses is 
certain he did not, and no one as yet has been 
able to show that he did, or to find a particle 
of evidence on behalf of the wearisome and 
motiveless deception which must, in this 
event, habitually have characterised a man of 
spotless integrity and honour. Moreover, it 
is wholly unlikely an obscure private soldier 
should have an obituary notice in an American 
newspaper, or if it were so, that it should 
have been noted by English readers. In 
fine, after critically examining this case, Mr. 
F. W. H. Myers remarks: "I hold that the 
surviving spirit of Abraham Florentine did 
really communicate with Mr. Moses. "^ 

It is, however, necessary to submit every 
case of "spiritualistic" communication to the 
most rigorous scrutiny before deciding on its 
probable origin; what to a novice may seem 
to have an extra-terrene origin may really be 
a telepathic influence from some living person 
or the revival of some forgotten impression. 

Long experience in the work of psychical 
research has shown the danger arising from 
what has been called cryptomnesia^ i.e. a 
hidden memory. This explanation has indeed 
been suggested by some psychical researchers 
as possible in the foregoing case (unwarrant- 
ably I think), but it cannot apply to the next; 
which affords another of the remarkable 

I'Troc. S. p. R.," Vol. XI, p. 407. 



Blanche Abercromby Case 211 

proofs of spirit identity obtained through the 
automatic writing of Mr. S. Moses. 

THE BLANCHE ABERCROMBY CASE. 

The following case Mr. Myers considered to be one 
of extreme interest and value, owing to the fact that 
only after Mr. Moses' death a series of chances led 
Mr. Myers to discover additional proofs of its veracity. 
The spirit purporting to communicate through Mr. 
Moses was that of a lady knovv^n to Mr. Myers, and 
who will be called Blanche Abercromby. This lady 
died on a Sunday afternoon at a country house some 
200 miles from London. Of her illness and death 
Mr. Moses knew absolutely nothing, but the same 
Sunday evening a communication, purporting to come 
from her, and stating that "she had just quitted the 
body," was made to Mr. Moses at his secluded lodgings 
in London. 

A few days later Mr. Moses' hand was again con- 
trolled by the same spirit and a few lines were written 
purporting to come from her and asserted by the spirit 
to be in her own handwriting, as a proof of her iden- 
tity. There is no reason to suppose Mr. Moses had 
ever seen her handwriting, for he had only met her 
once casually at a seance. The facts communicated 
to Mr. Moses by the deceased lady were private; ac- 
cordingly he mentioned the matter to no one, and 
gummed down the pages of the communication in his 
note book and marked it "private matter." 

When after the death of Mr. Moses his documents 
were examined by Mr. Myers, he received permission 
from the executors to open these sealed pages. To 
his astonishment he found the communication to be 



212 Chapter XVI 

from the lady whom he had known, and on comparing 
the handwriting of the script with letters from this 
lady when on earth he found the resemblance was in- 
contestable. He submitted the matter to the lady's son 
and to an expert in handwriting and both affirmed that 
the spirit writing and that by the lady when living 
were from the same person. Numerous peculiarities 
were found common to the two, and the contents of 
the automatic script were also characteristic of the de- 
ceased lady. The ordinary handwriting of Mr. Moses 
is quite different from that which usually comes in 
his automatic script, and that again was wholly unlike 
the caligraphy in the present case. 

Here no hypothesis of telepathy from the 
living, or forgotten memory, or the sub- 
liminal self of Mr. Moses, affords any explan- 
ation, and I regard this case as one of the 
strongest links in the chain of evidence on 
behalf of survival after death. As a rule the 
caligraphy of the automatic script is not the 
same as that of the person who purports to 
communicate, nor should v/e expect it to be 
so, if the communication be effected by tele- 
pathy from the deceased person. 

There are however some other cases where 
the soi-disant spirit occasionally seems able to 
guide the hand of the medium so perfectly 
as to produce an accurate reproduction of the 
deceased's handwriting. A notable instance 
of this occurred in the case of the late Pro- 
fessor Henry Sidgwick, from whom a char- 



Evidence of Handwriting 213 

acteristic communication came through auto- 
matic writing to which his signature was 
affixed. This signature is identical w^th that 
in the many letters I received from Prof. 
Sidgwick when on earth, and here also there 
is no reason to believe the medium, a lady I 
know personally, had ever seen Professor 
Sidgwick's handwriting.^ 

Bearing in mind the hypothesis of crypt- 
omnesia, I will now cite some remarkable 
messages which were sent to us by my 
venerable friend the late Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, the cousin and brother-in-law of 
Charles Darwin, and himself a well-known 
savant. Mr. Wedgwood was deeply interested 
in psychical research and had many sittings 
for automatic writing (by planchette) with 
two valued friends of his, "Mrs. R." and her 
sister "Mrs. V.," both of whom were psychic. 
In the present case Mrs. R. was the auto- 
matist, a lady known for some years to Mr. 
Fred. Myers, and of whose scrupulous good 
faith there can be no more question than of 
that of Mr. Wedgwood himself. Mrs. R. and 
Mr. Wedgwood sat opposite each other at a 
small table, the former with her left hand and 

1 In Human Personality, Vol. II, p. i68, Mr. Myers refers to 
this element of handwriting as a proof of identity, and gives a 
remarkable case in point on p. 466. An able, critical paper by 
Sir H. Babington Smith, C.B., which discusses this and other 
evidence given by automatic writing, was published in Vol. V of 
the Proceedings S.P.R. 



214 Chapter XVI 

the latter with his right on the planchette. 
Mr. Wedgwood states that the writing came 
upright to him but upside down to his partner, 
and so far from guiding the planchette his 
only difficulty was to avoid interfering with its 
rapid movement. His partner declared the 
same, and moreover could not have written 
rapidly, or at all, in this inverted manner. 
Mrs. R.'s notes, confirmed by Mr. Wedgwood, 
are as follows : — 



THE DAVID BRAINERD CASE. 

October loth, Friday, at , Mr. Wedgwood and 

I sitting. The board moved after a short pause and 
one preliminary circling. 

"David — David— David — dead 143 years." 

The butler at this moment announced lunch, and 
Mr. Wedgwood said to the soi-disant spirit, "Will you 
go on for us afterwards, as we must break off now?" 

"I will try." 

During lunch Mr. Wedgwood was reckoning up the 
date indicated as 1747, and conjecturing that the con- 
trol was perhaps David Hume, whom he thought had 
died about then. On our beginning again to sit, the 
following was volunteered: — 

"I am not Hume. I have come with Theodora's 
sister. I was attracted to her during her life in 
America. My work was in that land, and my earthly 
toil was cut short early, as hers has been. I died at 
thirty years old. I toiled five years, carrying forward 
the lamp of God's truth as I knew it." 



The David Brainerd Case 215 

Mr. Wedgwood remarked that he must have been 
a missionary. 

"Yes, in Susquehannah and other places." 

"Can you give any name besides David?" 

"David Bra — David Bra — David Brain — David 
Braine — David Brain." 

Mr, W. : "Do you mean that your name is Braine?" 

"Very nearly right." 

Mr. W. : "Try again." 

"David Braine. Not quite all the name; right so 
far as it goes. ... I was born in 171 7." 

Mr. W. : "Are you an American?" 

"America I hold to be my country as we consider 

things. I worked at "' (sentence ends with a line 

of D's.) 

After an interval Mr. Wedgwood said he thought 
it had come into his head who our control was. He 
had some recollection that in the i8th century a man 
named David Brainerd was missionary to the North 
American Indians. We sat again and the following 
was written: — 

"I am glad you know me. I had not power to 
complete name or give more details. I knew that 
secret of the district. It was guarded by the Indians, 
and was made known to two independent circles. 
Neither of them succeeded, but the day will come that 
will uncover the gold." 

It was suggested that this meant Heavenly truth. 

"I spoke of earthly gold." 

Mr. Wedgwood said the writing was so faint he 
thought power was failing. 

"Yes, nearly gone. I wrote during my five years of 
work. It kept my heart alive." 

Mr. Wedgwood writes: — 



2i6 Chapter XVI 

I could not think at first where I had ever heard 
of Brainerd, but I learn from my daughter in London 
that my sister-in-law, who lived with me 40 or 50 
years ago, was a great admirer of Brainerd, and seemed 
to have an account of his life, but I am quite certain 
that I never opened the book and knew nothing of 
the dates, which are all correct, as well as his having 
been a missionary to the Susquehannahs. 

My daughter has sent me extracts from his life, 
stating that he was born in 1 7 18 and not 1 71 7 as 
planchette wrote. But the Biographical Dictionary says 
that he died in 1747, aged 30. 

Mrs. R. writes that she had no knowledge whatever 
of David Brainerd before this. 

The Biographical Dictionary gives the following: — 

"Brainerd, David. A celebrated American mission- 
ary, who signalised himself by his successful endeavours 
to convert the Indians on the Susquehannah, Dela- 
ware, etc. Died, aged 30, 1747." 

It is perhaps noteworthy in connection with the last 
sentence of the planchette writing that in the life of 
Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards extracts given from his 
journal show that he wrote a good deal, e.g., "Feb. 3, 
1744. Could not but write as well as meditate," etc. 
"Feb. 15, 1745. Was engaged in writing almost all 
the day." He invariably speaks of comfort in connec- 
tion with writing. 

The other case given by Mr. Wedgwood 
is too lengthy to quote in detail, but a brief 
summary is given because, like the preceding, 
it is one of the few cases where the sot~disant 
spirit asserts he lived on earth very many 
years ago. 



The Colonel Gurwood Case 217 



THE COLONEL GURWOOD CASE. 

In this case the automatist was also Mr, 
Wedgwood's friend Mrs. R., a lady of un- 
impeachable integrity as already stated, and 
the mode of sitting with planchette was the 
same as described in the previous case. The 
sitting took place in June, 1889, and is re- 
corded in the Journal of the S.P.R. for that 
year. Notes of the sitting were written at the 
time and the planchette writing copied. 

As soon as the sitting began planchette wrote that 
a spirit was present who wanted to draw; forthwith 
a rough drawing was made of the top of an embattled 
wall, or mural coronet, from which an arm holding 
a sword arose. Planchette wrote, "Sorry I can't do 
better, was meant for a test, J.G." Asked what the 
drawing represented, the answer came, "Something that 
was given me." Asked if J.G. was a man or woman, 
planchette wrote "Man, John G." Mr. Wedgwood 
said he knew a J. Giffard, was that right? The reply 
came, "Not GifEard, John Gurwood, no connection of 
yours." Asked how he died, "I killed myself on 
Christmas Day, it will be forty-four years ago next 
Christmas," i.e. in 1845. Asked if he were in the 
army, the reply came, "Yes, but it was the pen, not 
the sword that did for me." Asked if pen was right, 
and if so, was he an author who failed? the reply 
was "Yes, pen, I did not fail, the pen was too much 
for me after the wound." Asked where he was wounded 
the reply was "In the Peninsular in the head, I was 



2i8 Chapter XVI 

wounded in i8io." Asked if the drawing was a crest 
and had anything to do with the wound planchette 
wrote "It came from that and was given me, the draw- 
ing was a test; remember my name, power fails to 
explain, stop now." 

Mr. Wedgwood then recalled that a Colonel Gur- 
wood edited the despatches of the Duke of Wellington, 
but he had never read any history of the Peninsular 
war and knew no details of Gurwood's life or of his 
crest: Mrs. R. was wholly ignorant of the matter. 
After the sitting Mr. Wedgwood looked up the matter 
and found that Colonel Gurwood led the forlorn hope 
at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in i8i2,^ and the 
Annual Register states that he then "received a wound 
in the skull which affected him for the remainder of 
his life." In recognition of his bravery he received 
a grant of arms in 1812, which are specified in the 
Book of Family Crests^ — and symbolised in the crest, 
— as follows, "Out of a mural coronet, a ruined castle 
in centre, and therefrom an arm, holding a scimitar." 
The drawing given as a test is practically this crest, 
though the ruined castle was doubtless too difficult 
to be drawn by planchette. Furthermore, the Annual 
Register for 1845 states that Colonel Gurwood com- 
mitted suicide on Chistmas Day that year, in a fit of 
despondency, and remarks that it was probably owing 
to the overstrain caused by his laborious work in editing 
the despatches; this explains the automatic writing, 
"Pen was too much for me after the wound." None 
of these facts were known to Mr. Wedgwood or Mrs. 
R. before the automatic writing came. 



^ Planchette wrote 1810, if the figures were correctly read. 



Evidence of Identity 219 

In subsequent sittings Colonel Gurv/ood 
again controlled planchette and gave some 
further details of his life, the storming of the 
fort and names of persons, all of which were 
found to be correct so far as they could be 
verified. But the evidential value of these 
later sittings must be discounted, owing to 
the fact that Mr. Wedgwood had meanwhile 
looked up Napier's Peninsular War and might 
have gained some of the information from its 
pages. 

Many other striking illustrations of survival 
after death might be given, but the reader 
who is interested must go to the original 
papers to which I have referred earlier. Sir 
Oliver Lodge has had some remarkable cases 
of "spirit identity" through other auto- 
matists, and especially through Mrs. Piper, 
with whom he has had numerous sittings. 
These cases he has critically investigated: 
many of them relate to himself and his family, 
revealing facts entirely unknown to the 
medium and at the time unknown to Sir 
Oliver, which subsequently have been found 
to be correct. The conviction to which 
Sir Oliver has been driven, from his own 
personal and long continued experience, 
and which he has publicly avowed, is that 
there is undeniably evidence of survival after 
death. 

One of the most recent cases corroborative 



220 Chapter XVI 

of this conclusion relates to messages purport- 
ing to come from his gallant and beloved son 
Lieut. Raymond Lodge, who lost his life in 
the war. Particulars of this case were read 
before the Society for Psychical Research, 
and I made an abstract of that paper, — kindly 
revised by Sir. O. Lodge, — for insertion in 
this place. But since then Sir Oliver has pub- 
lished his work "Raymond," where additional 
evidence is given, and as this book has been 
so widely read and noticed in the press it 
seems needless to refer to the matter further. 
Moreover, nearly all the evidence I have 
cited has come through private and unpaid 
mediums, and this was not the case in all the 
Raymond messages. 

The Right Hon. Gerald Balfour has re- 
cently (Dec. 1916) read a paper before the 
S.P.R., which in the opinion of some compe- 
tent judges affords the most striking evidence 
of survival yet obtained. For it apparently 
demonstrates the continued and vigorous 
mental activity of the late Professor A. W. 
Verrall and the late Professor Butcher, both 
eminent classical scholars. The evidence ex- 
hibits a range of knowledge, and constructive 
ability in framing a classical puzzle, such as 
could not be accounted for by telepathy, or the 
subliminal self of the automatist. The auto- 
matic script came through a lady who is well 
known to Mr. Balfour, and to whom refer- 



Evidence of Identity 221 

ence has already been made under her pseu- 
donym of ''Mrs. Willett." 

Mr. Balfour affirms with confidence that 
Mrs. Willett is as little familiar with classical 
subjects as the average of educated women. 
Nevertheless recondite classical allusions like 
the "Ear of Dionysius" (which forms the 
title of Mr. Balfour's paper) and other ob- 
scure topics were given in the script, the whole 
forming a literary puzzle which remained 
insoluble, until later on the script furnished 
the key. Mr. Balfour says it is difficult to 
suppose that the materials employed in the 
construction of this puzzle could have been 
drawn from the mind of any living person; 
he believes they must be ascribed to some 
disembodied intelligence or intelligences, and 
there are cogent reasons for believing that the 
real authors were, — as they profess to be, — 
the late Professors Verrall and Butcher. The 
paper will shortly be published in the ''Fro- 
ceedings" of the S.P.R. 



CHAPTER XVII 

EVIDENCE FROM ABROAD OF SURVIVAL 

"There is no death, what seems so is transition j 
This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 
Whose portal we call death." 

— Longfellow. 

It must be borne in mind that competent 
psychical researchers in other parts of the 
world besides the United Kingdom have for 
many years past been at work, and obtained 
what they deemed to be conclusive evidence 
of survival. In this chapter I will cite a frag- 
ment of the evidence that comes to us from 
America and Russia. 

No investigator of psychical phenomena 
has given more time to the critical investiga- 
tion of the evidence on behalf of survival than 
the late Dr. Hodgson during his residence in 
the United States. In fact he made this sub- 
ject practically his sole occupation for many 
years before his death. He was so far from 
being credulous that he detected and exposed 
many spurious phenomena, and in my opinion 



Evidence from Abroad 223 

he carried his scepticism too far as regards 
other mediums than Mrs. Piper, with whom 
he had innumerable sittings. At first he at- 
tempted to explain away the results he ob- 
tained through Mrs. Piper; but ultimately 
was driven to the spirit hypothesis; his own 
words are: "Having tried the hypothesis 
of telepathy from the living for several years 
. . . I have no hesitation in affirming with 
the most absolute assurance that the 'spirit' 
hypothesis is justified by its fruits and the 
other hypothesis is not." 

The conclusion at which Dr. Hodgson 
arrived, after his prolonged and critical ex- 
perimental study of Mrs. Piper, he summed 
up in the following words : — 

"At the present time I cannot profess to have any 
doubt but that the chief 'communicators' to whom I 
have referred in the foregoing pages [of his report] 
are veritably the personahties that they claim to be, 
that they have survived the change we call death, and 
that they have directly communicated with us whom 
we call living, through Mrs. Piper's entranced or- 
ganism."^ 

However improbable sceptics may consider 
this conclusion, we must remember that Dr. 
Hodgson began his long and arduous investi- 
gation with just the same doubt and even 

1 "Proc. S.P.R.,'' Vol. XIII, p. 406. 



224 Chapter XVII 

disbelief in the "spiritualistic" hypothesis as 
any of his critics may entertain. Moreover 
he was not only a remarkably sane and 
shrewd investigator, but one specially skilled 
in exposing fraud and illusion. This was 
shown, as I have remarked, by his exposure 
of various alleged spiritualistic phenomena 
which had mystified and baffled some of the 
ablest enquirers. Hence those who have not 
had Dr. Hodgson's experience have no right 
to place mere notions of what is probable and 
improbable, or possible and impossible, 
against his deliberate opinion, arrived at after 
many years of patient and painstaking enquiry. 

If it appeared that any other competent 
investigator, after an equally exhaustive re- 
search, had come to an opposite conclusion, 
sceptics would be justified in their hesitancy 
to accept the experimental evidence of sur- 
vival after death. But this is precisely what 
cannot be adduced. On the contrary, so far as 
I know, every trained observer, of any nation- 
ality, who has devoted years to a similar 
experimental research, either has arrived at 
practically the same conclusion as Dr. Hodg- 
son and other able investigators, or has been 
forced to admit that the phenomena in ques- 
tion are at present wholly inexplicable. 

Since Dr. Hodgson's death his work in 
America has been chiefly carried on by his 
friend Dr. J. H. Hyslop, formerly Professor 



i 



American Investigators 225 

at Columbia University. Dr. Hyslop, who 
now lives in New York, has devoted his life 
to this work and is pre-eminent as an able, 
courageous and indefatigable worker at 
physchical research. Amid his amazingly 
voluminous contributions to the '^Proceed- 
ings'' and '' Journal of the American Society 
for Psychical Research," there are numerous 
papers affording striking evidences of survival 
after death. This evidence has driven him to 
abandon the agnostic views he formerly held 
and become a convinced believer in the spirit 
hypothesis. As Dr. Hyslop is a trained 
psychologist his opinion is all the more 
valuable. 

During the last six years Dr. Hyslop has 
had constant sittings with a lady, Mrs. 
Chenoweth (pseudonym), who has developed 
strong mediumistic powers. The following is 
a brief narrative of one of the evidential cases 
of survival obtained through Mrs. Chenoweth, 
whose entire trustworthiness and honesty are 
not disputed. This case illustrates the trivial 
nature of the incidents given to afford identi- 
fication. 



THE TAUSCH CASE. 

Dr. Hyslop states that he received a letter from 
a lady in Germany, of whom he had never heard 
before, asking him if he could recommend a psychic, 



226 Chapter XVII 

as she had recently lost her husband, and in her great 
distress wanted to find some evidence that would as- 
sure her of her husband's continued existence. Dr. 
Hyslop answered that he knew of no psychic in Ger- 
many, but if she would come to America he would 
arrange for sittings with a psychic in whom he had 
confidence. The lady replied that this was impossible, 
but gave the name (different from her own) and ad- 
dress of a sister in Boston, U.S.A., who might take 
her place. 

Accordingly Dr. Hyslop arranged for the sister to 
meet him, but gave her no information of the psychic's 
name or address, nor did he give any information to 
the psychic (Mrs. Chenoweth) of the visitor or the 
object of the sitting. Before admitting the visitor Dr. 
Hyslop put Mrs. Chenoweth into a trance state, when 
the normal faculties are in abeyance; in fact. Dr. 
Hyslop was satisfied that the medium did not even 
know whether her visitor was a man or a woman. 

Automatic writing by Mrs. Chenoweth's hand began 
and the unseen communicator indicated that a gentle- 
man was present who was anxious to make his existence 
known to his wife, that he was a philosopher and 
a friend of the late Professor William James of 
Harvard, that his mother was dead, and to indicate 
his identity pointed to a cavity in his mouth where 
a tooth had been extracted. Of course none of these 
facts were known to Dr. Hyslop, but in the hope they 
might apply to the husband of the lady who wrote 
to him, he communicated them to the widow in Ger- 
many and found they were all correct; her husband 
had been a lecturer on philosophy, was a friend of 
Prof. W. James and had lost a tooth, though the 
cavity was not visible. Then the unseen communica- 



The Tausch Case 227 

tor stated the gentleman just before his decease, had 
great pain in his head, with confusion of ideas and 
longed for home, adding that he was not away from 
home where he died, but it was not like his home. All 
this turned out to be true, he died in his old home 
in Germany and not in his home in America. 

Then some striking evidence of identity came, the 
communicator stated the deceased wished to prove 
that he was not a fool to believe in spirits, and that 
he was geratly interested in some records which had 
been lent to him "by his friend James." In response 
to Dr. Hyslop's enquiries the widow wrote that before 
her husband's death Prof. James had lent him some 
records to read which had impressed him. All present 
at the sitting were of course wholly ignorant of this 
and of the other incidents. The unseen communicator 
went on to say that he was fond of fixing things and 
putting clocks to right; that he used to annotate his 
books and apparently attempted to sign his name, for 
the letters T. h. came. In reply to enquiries the widow 
wrote to Dr. Hyslop that her husband did fuss a great 
deal about clocks, that he annotated his books and 
always read with a pencil in his hand. Now the name 
of the deceased was Tausch, the first and last letters 
of which were given. 

Later on the communicator made great efforts to 
give his name, by automatic writing through the en- 
tranced Mrs. Chenoweth, and without any help from 
Dr. Hyslop (who of course knew the name but no 
other particulars) there came "Taussh, Tauch and 
Taush," phonetically correct. Dr. Hyslop then ad- 
dressed the communicator in German and got replies 
in German, among them that the visitor was his 



228 Chapter XVII 

"Geschwister," which was correct, though Mrs. Cheno- 
weth (through whom of course the automatic writing 
came) only knew four words of German, not included 
in these replies. Other points of interest establishing 
identity also came, such as that the deceased used to 
carry a small bag containing his manuscripts and 
reading glass, and that he had taken a long railway 
journey shortly before his death. In reply to enquiry 
Mrs. Tausch wrote that her husband always used to 
carry a small bag in which he put his manuscripts 
and eye glasses, and that he had taken a long rail 
journey shortly before his death. 

Dr. Hyslop says, all the incidents described were 
unknown to him and required confirmation by cor- 
respondence with Mrs. Tausch in Germany, the only 
living person who knew their truth. Nor in all his 
years of sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth has Dr. Hyslop 
ever had any communications containing similar in- 
cidents to those above described. The name might 
have been filched by telepathy from Dr. Hyslop's 
mind, but there is no evidence that Mrs. Chenoweth , 
has the slightest telepathic percipience. Even if Mrs. 
Chenoweth had known the name and address of Mrs. 
Tausch in Germany (which, of course, she did not), 
she could not have communicated with her, as only 
36 hours elapsed from the first to the last sitting. There 
was no one in America who could have given her the 
information. 

I agree with Dr. Hyslop that no adequate 
explanation of this case by telepathy or sub- 
liminal knowledge or collusion on the part 
of the medium can be givea, and that the 



Russian Investigators 229 

simplest and most reasonable solution is that 
the information was derived from the mind 
of the deceased person. 

But I must draw to a close my imperfect 
selection from the mass of first-hand evidence 
that is being accumulated in proof of spirit 
identity. 

The following case is chosen because it 
comes from wholly independent and able 
investigators in Russia. Here, too, any ex- 
planation based on collusion, telepathy, or the 
knowledge of those present, is out of the 
question. Unfortunately the evidence is 
somewhat lengthy, but as it combines the 
manifestation of physical phenomena with 
evidence of the identity of the communicating 
intelligence, it forms an important link be- 
tween the two classes of phenomena. No paid 
or professional mediums were present, and the 
bona fides of all taking part appears to be 
unquestionable. 

This case is quoted from Vol. VI of the 
'^ Proceedings" of the S.P.R., where the reader 
will find other similar evidential cases in a 
valuable paper by Mr. F. W. H. Myers. 

THE PER^LIGUINE CASE. 

A sitting was held in the house of M. A. NartzefE, 
at Tambof, Russia, on Nov. i8th, 1887. M. Nartzeff 
belongs to the Russian nobility and is a landed pro- 



230 Chapter XVII 

prietor; his aunt, housekeeper and the official physician 
to the municipality of Tambof were the only other 
persons present. 

The sitting began at 10 p.m. at a table placed in 
the middle of the room, by the light of a night-light 
placed on the mantelpiece. All doors were closed. The 
left hand of each sitter was placed on the right hand 
of his neighbour, and each foot touched the neighbour's 
foot, so that during the whole of the sitting all hands 
and feet were under control. Sharp raps were heard 
in the floor, and afterwards in the wall and the ceiling, 
after which the blows sounded immediately in the 
middle of the table, as if someone had struck it from 
above with his fist; and with such violence, and so 
often, that the table trembled the whole time. 

M. Nartzeff asked, "Can you answer rationally, 
giving three raps for yes, one for no?" "Yes." "Do 
you wish to answer by using the alphabet?" "Yes." 
"Spell your name." The alphabet was repeated, and 
the letters indicated by three raps — "Anastasie Pere- 
liguine." "I beg you to say now why you have come 
and what you desire." "I am a wretched woman. 
Pray for me. Yesterday, during the day, I died at the 
hospital. The day before yesterday I poisoned myself 
with matches." "Give us some details about your- 
self. How old were you? Give a rap for each year." 
Seventeen raps. "Who were you?" "I was house- 
maid. I poisoned myself with matches." "Why did 
you poison yourself?" "I will not say. I will say 
nothing more." 

After this a heavy table which was near the wall, 
outside the chain of hands, came up rapidly three 
times towards the table round which the chain was 



The Pereliguine Case 231 

made, and each time It was pushed backwards, no 
one knew by what means. Seven raps (the signal 
agreed upon for the close of the sitting), were now 
heard in the wall; and at 11.20 p.m. the seance came 
to an end. 

( Here follow the signatures of all those present, with 
their attestation.) 

Those who were present also signed the following 
attestation : — 

"The undersigned having been present at the seance 
of November i8th, 1887, at the house of M. A. N. 
Nartzeff, hereby certify that they had no previous 
knowledge of the existence or the death of Anastasi^ 
Pereliguine, and that they heard her name for the 
first time at the above mentioned se„nce." 

Enquiries were then made as to the truth of the 
message purporting to have come from an unknown 
suicide. Dr. Touloucheff, the official physician who 
was present at the sitting, and who signed the above 
documents, states that at first he did not believe there 
was any truth in the message. For he writes: — 

"In my <:apacity as physician of the municipality 
I am at once informed by the police of all cases of 
suicide. But as Pereliguine had added that her death 
had taken place at the hospital, and since at Tambof 
we have only one hospital, that of the 'Institutions 
de Bienfaisance,' which is not within my official survey, 
and whose authorities, in such cases as this, them- 
selves send for the police, or the magistrate; — I sent 
a letter to my colleague. Dr. Sundblatt, the head physi- 
cian of this hospital, and without explaining my reason 
simply asked him to inform me whether there had 
been any recent case of suicide at the hospital, and, 
if so, to give me the name and particulars. The 



232 Chapter XVII 

following is a copy of his reply, certified by Dr. Sund- 
blatt's own signature. 

(Signed) "N. Touloucheff." 

"November 19th, 1887. 
"My dear Colleague, — On the i6th of this month 
I was on duty; and on that day two patients were 
admitted to the Hospital, who had poisoned them- 
selves with phosphorous. The first, Vera Kosovitch, 
aged 38, wife of a clerk in the public service . . . was 
taken in at 8 p.m.; the second a servant named 
Anastasie Pereliguine, aged 17, was taken in at lo 
p.m. This second patient had swallowed, besides an 
infusion of boxes of matches, a glass of kerosene, and 
at the time of her admission was already very ill. 
She died at I p.m. on the 17th, and the post-mortem 
examination has been made to-day. Kosovitch died 
yesterday, and the post-mortem is fixed for to-morrow. 
Kosovitch said that she had taken the phosphorous in 
an access of melancholy, but Pereliguine did not state 
her reason for poisoning herself. 

(Signed) "Th. Sundblatt." 

When M. Nartzeff was asked if the housekeeper, 
who was at the sitting, could possibly have heard of 
the suicide, he replied as follows: — 

"In answer to your letter I inform you that my 
aunt's housekeeper is not a housekeeper strictly speak- 
ing, but rather a friend of the family, having been 
nearly fifteen years with us, and possessing our entire 
confidence. She could not have already learnt the fact 
of the suicide, as she had no relations or friends in 
Tambof, and never leaves the house. 

"The hospital in question is situated at the other 
end of the town, about 5 versts from my house. Dr. 



Identity of the Discarnate 233 

Sundblatt informs me, on the authority of the proces- 
verbal of the inquest, that Pereliguine was able to 
read and write. (This was in answer to the enquiry 
whether the deceased could have understood alphabetic 
communication. ) " 

There are few cases which in my opinion 
afford so simple and striking a demonstration 
of the identity of the discarnate personality 
as the foregoing. There was no professional 
medium ; all the witnesses concerned give their 
full names; they are persons of repute, and 
after the facts were published their testimony 
was never impugned. 

Those who remain in doubt as to the value 
of the evidence adduced in the foregoing 
chapters should remember that it is, and 
probably always will be, impossible to obtain 
such conclusive logical demonstration of 
survival after death as will satisfy every 
agnostic. But ''formal logical sequence" as 
Cardinal Newman said in his "Grammar of 
Assent," "is not, in fact, the method by which 
we are enabled to become certain of what is 
concrete. . . The real and necessary method 
. . . is the cumulation of probabilities, in- 
dependent of each other, arising out of the 
nature and circumstances of the particular 
case which is under review," and so the truth 
of the spirit hypothesis, and of spirit-identity, 



234 Chapter XVII 

like the truth of all disputed matters, is to be 
judged in this way, — that is, by the whole 
evidence taken together/ 

In concluding this chapter I wish to draw 
attention to a valuable and brightly written 
work in two volumes, strangely entitled "On 
the Cosmic Relations," by Mr. Henry Holt, 
the widely esteemed American publisher. In 
this work Mr. Holt gives a mass of evidence 
obtained by himself, as well as by Dr. Hodg- 
son and others, that has convinced him of the 
existence of super-normal phenomena, and 
the impossibility of explaining away by tele- 
pathy or otherwise the evidence on behalf of 
survival after bodily death. 



1 Kant knew nothing of the telepathy or psychical research, but 
even his critical mind admitted that "in regard to ghost stories, 
while I doubt any one of them, still I have a certain faith in the 
whole of them taken together." — Dreams of a Spirit Seer, p. 88. 



art 5 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CLAIRVOYANCE 
PSYCHOLOGY OF TRANCE PHENOMENA 

"We all walk in m3'Steries. We are surrounded by 
an atmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring 
in it, or how it is connected with our own spirit. So 
much is certain, that in particular cases we can put out 
the feelers of our soul beyond its bodily limits, and that 
a presentiment, nay, an actual insight into the immediate 
future, is accorded to it."^ 

Many difficulties and perplexing problems 
arise in reviewing the brief and imperfect 
outline of spiritualistic phenomena that I have 
attempted to give in the preceding pages. 
These it is desirable to consider in the present 
and succeeding chapter. 

Some of these difficulties may be removed 
when we obtain a fuller knowledge of the 

1 Goethe, "Conversations with Eckermann," Bohn's Library, 
p. 290. 

23s 



236 Chapter XVIII 

whole subject. Those of my readers who 
approach these problems for the first time 
will, of course, bear in mind that only a frag- 
ment of the already accessible evidence could 
be presented within the compass of a small 
volume. Moreover, I have been obliged to 
omit certain portions of the wide field of 
psychical research, which have received pro- 
longed and critical investigation, and must 
be considered in any explanation of spiritual- 
istic phenomena. One of these is telepathy, 
now largely accepted, and to which I will 
return in the last chapter; another is alleged 
clairvoyance. On this latter a few words must 
now be said.^ 

The term clairvoyance unfortunately is 
used to denote two distinct aspects of super- 
normal faculty. In one sense it is employed 
to express the transcendental perception of 
distant scenes or of hidden material objects. 
That such a faculty exists I have not the 
least doubt; it may be evoked in the higher 
stages of hypnotic trance or it may occur in 
certain sensitives in their normal state. Mrs. 
H. Sidgwick has published a searching inves- 
tigation of what has been called "travelling 



^ In a letter published in the London Times so long ago as 
1876, I said that before we could hope to arrive at any definite 
conclusions upon alleged spirit communications we must know 
whether clairvoyance and (what is now called) telepathy really 
exist. 



Clairvoyance 237 

clairvoyance,"^ and in my lengthy researches 
on the so-called Divining — or Dowsing — rod, 
I have shown that a good dowser unquestion- 
ably possesses a somewhat similar faculty, 
though one unrecognised by science.^ The 
term tel-cesthesia has been suggested by Mr. 
F. W. H. Myers for this faculty; implying 
the perception of terrestrial objects or condi- 
tions independently of the recognised channels 
of sense, and also independently of any pos- 
sible knowledge derived from telepathy. 

The word clairvoyance has also been used 
to denote the transcendental vision of beings 
on another plane of existence. It is alleged 
that many mediums have this faculty in their 
normal state, or in their entranced condition, 
and also in their "waking stage" between 
the two. Here also the evidence on behalf 
of such a faculty appears to me indisputable; 
but the difficulty of obtaining conclusive 
evidence on this point is great, owing to the 
possible intrusion of telepathy, — that con- 
venient and hard worked hypothesis. 

I have little doubt that clairvoyance in 
both its meanings, as well as telepathy, enter 
largely into, and afford some explanation of, 
the communications which purport to come 

1 See Proceedings S.P.R., Vol. VII et seg. 

2 See Proceedings S.P.R., Vols. XIII and XV; also for a 
brief resume of the whole subject see Chap. XII of my book on 
Psychical Research in the "Home University Library." 



238 Chapter XVIII 

from the spirit world. But we must assume 
telepathy from the dead as well as the living, 
and we need evidence that the medium 
actually possesses power as a percipient, or 
unconscious receiver, of a telepathic impress. 
It is quite time experimental psychologists 
and psychical researchers should admit that 
super-normal phenomena do occur, and test, 
as well as propose, various theories, now often 
advanced without proof. 

Students of psychical research will find 
the most important and critical examination 
of the psychology of the trance phenomena 
of spiritualism in the monograph by Mrs. 
Henry Sidgwick, w^hich fills the bulky volume 
of the '^Proceedings of the S.P.R." for De- 
cember, 191 5. This laborious research deals 
with Mrs. Piper's trance phenomena — but 
applies more or less fully to other genuine 
mediums — when evidence is afforded of 
knowledge acquired otherwise than through 
the senses, whether from the living or from 
the dead. The object of the paper is to throw 
light on the question 

"Whether the intelligence that speaks or writes in 
the trance, and is sometimes in telepathic communica- 
tion with other minds (whether of the living or of the 
dead) is other than a phase, or centre of consciousness, 
of Mrs. Piper herself." 



Psychology of Trance Phenomena 239 

Mrs. Sidgwick emphatically admits that 
Mrs. Piper has super-normal means of obtain- 
ing knowledge, but comes to the conclusion 
that Mrs. Piper's trance, and presumably that 
of other similar mediums — 

"Is probably a state of self-induced hypnosis in which 
her hypnotic self personates different characters either 
consciously and deliberately, or unconsciously and be- 
lieving herself to be the person she represents, and 
sometimes probably in a state of consciousness inter- 
mediate between the two. . . And further . . . she 
can obtain perfectly, and for the most part fragmenta- 
rily, telepathic impressions. . . Such impressions are 
not only received by her as the result of her own 
telepathic activity or that of other spirits — spirits of 
the living or may be of the dead — but rise partially 
or completely into the consciousness operating in the 
trance communications, and so are recognized."^ 

Telepathy from the living, and also some- 
times from the discarnate, combined with a 
real or imaginary dissociation of personality 
of the medium during the trance state, is 
therefore Mrs. Sidgwick's view of such 
phenomena. This was in substance Dr. 
Hodgson's opinion in the earlier stage of his 
investigations. But, as Mrs. Sidgwick says, 
"he had apparently already abandoned this 
hypothesis when he published his first re- 

1 "Proceedings S.P.R," Vol. XXVIII, p. 330. 



240 Chapter XFIII 

port." As Is well known, and was pre- 
viously mentioned, p. 223, Dr. Hodgson and 
Mr. Myers, like many other critical students, 
eventually were driven to accept the spirit 
hypothesis as the most consistent and simplest 
solution. 

Mrs. Sidgwick's conclusions are unquestion- 
ably entitled to careful consideration, and 
doubtless will commend themselves to many 
psychologists and conservative thinkers. To 
a large extent, if without presumption I may 
express an opinion, I believe they are justified, 
and explain many of the perplexing anoma- 
lies, false statements and personation of great 
names, in these trance communications. 

Thus in a sitting with Mrs. Piper, in 1899, 
the Jewish lawgiver "Moses of old" pur- 
ported to communicate, and prophesied that 
in the near future there would be great wars 
and bloodshed and then the approach of the 
millennium. But in this great war Russia 
and France would be on one side against 
England and America on the other, whilst 
Germany would not take any serious part in 
the war. After this ''Moses" added a good 
deal of solemn twaddle. 

Then another time Sir Walter Scott pur- 
ports to communicate and tells Dr. Hodgson 
that if he wishes to know anything about the 
planet Mars he was to be sure to call up the 
novelist, as he had visited all the planets; 



Psychology of Trance Phenomena 241 

asked if he had seen a planet further away 
than Saturn, the soi-disant Walter Scott 
answered "Mercury!" Julius Caesar also 
purports to control and Madame Guyon; but 
another and more frequent control was George 
Eliot (the novelist), who sometimes acts as 
the communicator, for she says, 

"We speak by thought unless we act upon some 
machine, so-called medium, when our thoughts are 
expressed to the controlling spirit who registers them 
for us." 

This may be true enough; but the real George 
Eliot would never speak so ungrammatically 
as to say, "I hardly know as there is enough 
light to communicate," or again, "Do not 
know as I have ever seen a haunted house," 
words which are reported to be her own. 
Similar grammatical mistakes are made by 
other educated controls. 

But some of the most conclusive evidence 
of personation is given by the control who 
purported to be the Rev. Stainton Moses. 
The names of three spirit friends (the 
"Imperator band"), whom the real Stainton 
Moses could never have forgotten, were 
given, and "not one of these names is true 
or has the least semblance of truth," Pro- 
fessor Newbold tells us. Again Dr. Stanley 
Hall in a sitting with Mrs. Piper, asked if 
a niece, Bessie Beals, could communicate? 



242 Chapter XVIII 

She processed to come and gave various mes- 
sages r several sittings, but she had never 
exists , Dt. Hall having given a fictitious 
nam and relationship! 

T .us it will be seen that we cannot take 
the:.e communications at their face value, 
as, they are sometimes manifestly false, 
although presented to the sitter with a 
dramatic distinctness and corresponding char- 
acter, which give them a life-like reality. 
They probably represent phases of the hyp- 
notic self of Mrs. Piper, created by some 
verbal or telepathic suggestion from the mind 
of the sitter. In spite of this unquestionable 
personation of deceased personalities Mrs. 
Sidgwick admits that — 

"Veridical communications are received, some of 
which, there is good reason to believe come from the 
dead, and therefore imply a genuine communicator in 
the background" (p. 204). 

Here it is well to note the meaning attached 
to the words "control" and "communicator." 
By the former is meant the intelligence which 
is, or professes to be, in direct communica- 
tion with the sitter through the voice or 
writing of the medium. By "communicator" 
is meant the intelligence for which the con- 
trol acts as amanuensis or interpreter, or 
whose remarks or telepathic impress the 
control repeats to the sitter through the 



Dijficulties of Communication 243 

medium. This definition, given "jy Mrs. 
Sidgwick, is generally accepted. 

The difficulties of communicating ai nec- 
essarily great, as we cannot suppose t at a 
physical process or physical organs of sp ^ch 
and hearing are employed by the communi- 
cators. In fact they tell us, as Swedenborg 
told us long before telepathy was discovered, 
that spirits converse by thought. Visual per- 
ception is sometimes suggested. One unseen 
communicator says: 

"If you could see me as I stand here, you would 
see every gesture I make, Vv^hich is copied by Rector 
[the control] ; he imitates me as I speak to you." 

Mental pictures, as Dr. Hyslop has stated, 
float before the mind of the medium and the 
difficulty seems to be in selecting the appro- 
priate one. Difficulties of hearing, or tele- 
pathic percipience, are also mentioned, espe- 
cially the difficulty in getting a name. Then 
there is mind wandering and mental confu- 
.sion, one communicator, speaking through 
Mrs. Piper, says: — 

"I am talking as it were through a thick fog and 
it often suffocates me," and again, "I can't get the right 
word, my mind is so confused"; "the conditions are 
suffocating." 

The sceptic, of course, will assert this is 



244 Chapter XVIII 

only the clever way the medium assumes to 
cloak her ignorance, but there is every reason 
to believe it represents a genuine difficulty in 
the transmission of ideas from the unseen to 
the seen. We know the uncertain conditions 
of telepathy here, and they may exist on the 
other side when the control is trying to 
impress ideas on the sub-conscious self of the 
medium. 

Some light is thus thrown on the scrappy, 
disjointed, and confused nature of many 
veridical messages. The primary need of 
establishing their identity probably explains 
why the communications are so largely frag- 
mentary reminiscences of the earth life of the 
deceased. 

Whilst the bulk of the communications 
appear to exhibit a truncated, dream-like 
intelligence on the part of the deceased, — as 
if a dream zone intervened between the two 
worlds, — this is not always the case. Some 
recent scripts, as in Mr. Gerald Balfour's 
paper on the JEar of Dionysius, show not only 
the co-operation of two or more discarnate 
minds, but also, as stated on p. 220, give posi- 
tive evidence of an ability and wide classical 
knowledge, quite beyond the power of the 
automatist. The cryptic allusions, it is true, 
need considerable ingenuity, learning and skill 
to make the evidence intelligible to ordinary 
minds. This recondite mode of communica- 



A decent Classical Script 245 

tion may be adopted to prevent suspicion that 
the message is derived from terrene minds by 
telepathy or other sources of error. Those 
who have not the necessary time or knowledge 
to unravel these mosaics of classical scholar- 
ship, must rest content with the assurance that 
competent and unbiassed investigators have 
been convinced that they afford convincing 
evidence of the identity of the deceased per- 
sons from whom they profess to come. 



CHAPTER XIX 

DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 
CONSIDERED 

"But trust that those we call the dead 
Are breathers of an ampler day 
For ever nobler ends." 

— In Memoriam, cxviii. 

In the course of our discussion we have seen 
a dreary agnosticism, and the materialistic 
tendency of scientific enquiry and modern 
commercialism, confronted with the indisput- 
able facts of psychical research. The revolu- 
tion in thought which those facts imply and 
necessitate, will in course of time be apparent, 
and be a great gain both to knowledge and 
religion. 

There remain, however, many unsolved 
■problems. Why are the unseen communi- 
cators so seldom conscious of other friends 
on earth, outside the narrow circle of the 
sitters? Are earth memories only revived by 
some association of ideas in the communicator 
or control with those in the minds of the 
circle? Why have we no messages that will 

246 



Difficulties and Objections 247 

stand critical enquiry, from the greatest or 
the saintliest men and women who once lived 
on earth? Why is there no clear and con- 
sistent account of the surroundings, and the 
occupation, of those who have passed into 
the spiritual world? These and many other 
questions naturally arise and we can only 
hope that in the future more light may be 
thrown upon these perplexities. 

There has certainly been a thinning of the 
veil which separates us from those who have 
passed into the unseen, but one is tempted 
to ask why only a corner of the veil has been 
lifted here and there, and no full revelation 
given to us of life in the spiritual world? 
Moreover, what is given appears so inade- 
quate and so unsatisfying. 

But it is probable we shall never be able 
to see behind the veil with the clearness and 
assurance that Swedenborg claimed to 
possess, although he warned others off the 
ground he trod. There may be, and are I 
believe, good reasons for this obscure vision. 
If everyone were as certain as they are of day 
following night, that after the momentary 
darkness of death they would pass into an 
endless life of brightness and freedom, such 
as many spiritualists depict, it is possible 
few would wish to remain on earth. May be 
multitudes of earth-worn and weary souls 
would resort to some painless and lethal drug, 



248 Chapter XIX 

that would enable them to enter a realm 
where they hoped their troubles would be for 
ever ended. A vain and foolish hope, for the 
discipline of life on earth is necessary for us 
all, and none can hope to attain a higher life 
without the educative experience of trial and 
conflict. 

Doubtless much of the scepticism that ex- 
ists in religious minds, as to the genuineness 
of these automatic communications, arises 
from the belief that messages which might 
reach us from beyond this life would 
authenticate themselves by their elevated 
wisdom and piety, or by their transcendent 
knowledge. Such a belief has its root in the 
popular notion that at death we are suddenly 
transformed by our passage out of this world 
into a state of sublime holiness and wisdom, 
or else of utter and hopeless misery. The 
good are supposed to enter at once into their 
final state of endless bliss, and the evil, by 
their transition from earth, into their final 
state of an endless Hell. One of the immense 
benefits which Swedenborg has conferred on 
theology is the shattering of this crude 
medieval creed, — not only among his follow- 
ers, but in a much wider circle; and to-day 
the same may be said of spiritualism, which 
confutes the popular idea of heaven and hell 
and teaches us the continuity of our existence 



Difficulties and Objections 249 

here and hereafter. Long ago Milton with 
singular prescience wrote : — 

"What if earth 
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things in each 
To other like, more than on earth is thought?" 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has publicly 
expressed his belief in Spiritualism, remarks: 
"We find ourselves in apparent communica- 
tion with the dead very shortly after they 
leave us, and they seem to be exactly as they 
were before we parted" ; and he adds that 
though Spiritualism is in no way antagonistic 
to Christianity it removes many of the crude 
conceptions and modifies some of the doctrines 
which are popularly held. 

Turning now to those who, like the Roman 
Catholics and many others, believe all spirit- 
ualistic phenomena to be the work of evil 
spirits and therefore to be shunned, the best 
reply is "by their fruits ye shall know them." 
We are told "to believe not every spirit but 
prove the spirits whether they are of God." 
An able Roman Catholic layman, Mr. J. G. 
Raupert, who has had considerable experience 
of Spiritualism, has written much on the 
dangers of this subject, and with much that 
he says I agree; but like the late Monsignor 
Benson he naturally regards the whole matter 
as one banned by his Church, and therefore 



250 Chapter XIX 

as he remarks, '^it is an eating of the fruit 
of the forbidden tree of knowledge."^ 

Most of the anathemas pronounced against 
spiritualism by Protestant and Roman ecclesi- 
astics come from the lips of men who know 
little or nothing of the subject. Some who 
have taken the trouble to enquire, have come 
to believe that spiritism reveals the existence 
of some mysterious power which may be of 
a more or less malignant character. 

Certainly the Apostle Paul in the Epistle 
to the Ephesians, points to a race of spiritual 
creatures, not made of flesh and blood, in- 
habiting the air around us, and able injur- 
iously to affect mankind. Good as well as 
mischievous agencies doubtless exist in the 
unseen; this, of course, is equally true if the 
phenomena are due to those who have once 
lived on the earth. "There are as great fools 
in the spirit world as there ever were in 
this," as Henry More said over 200 years 
ago. In any case, granting the existence 
of a spiritual world, it is necessary to 
be on our guard against the invasion of our 
will by a lower order of intelligence and 
morality. 

The danger to the medium lies, in my 

^ Miss H. A. Dallas has -written an admirable little book deal- 
ing with the objections to spiritualism from a religious point 
of view, and furnishes a cogent reply to many of the points 
raised by Mr. Raupert. 



Dijficulties and Objections 251 

opinion, not only in the loss of spiritual 
stamina, but in the possible deprivation of 
that birth-right we each are given to cherish, 
our individuality, our true self-hood; just as 
in another way this may be impaired by 
sensuality, opium, or alcohol. 

The great object of our life on earth appears 
to be, on the one hand, the upbuilding, 
strengthening, and perpetuation of our sepa- 
rate and distinct personalities; and, on the 
other, the awakening and development in each 
of the consciousness of an underlying Unity, 
which links each person into a larger Per- 
sonal Life common to all, "in Whom we live 
and move and have our being" ; in a word, 
the realisation of the fact that we are integral 
parts and members of one Body. In so far 
as Spiritualism aids or thwarts these objects 
its moral effect must be judged; like mystic- 
ism, I think it aids the latter object, but 
is apt to endanger the former. 

What I have said, let me once again repeat, 
has obviously no bearing on prudent scientific 
enquiry. Indiscriminate condemnation and 
ignorant credulity are, in truth, the two most 
dangerous elements with which the public are 
confronted in connection with Spiritualism. 
The explorer speedily discovers that both are 
out of place, and in the ardour of the search — 
unless properly equipped and guided by the 
lumen siccum of the scientific spirit — is likely 



252 Chapter XIX 

to become engulfed in a Serbonian bog, even 
if no worse fate befall him. 

It is because I feel that in the fearless 
pursuit of truth it is the paramount duty of 
science to lead the way, and erect such sign- 
posts as may be needed in the vast territory 
we dimly see before us, that I so strongly 
deprecate the past and the present scornful 
attitude of many in the scientific world. 
Furthermore, as a famous philosopher has 
remarked of cognate facts, "The phenomena 
under discussion are, at least from a philo- 
sophical standpoint, of all facts presented to 
us by the whole of experience, without com- 
parison the most important; it is, therefore, 
the duty of every learned man to make him- 
self thoroughly acquainted with them."^ 



1 Schopenhauer ; who is here speaking of mesmensm and clair- 
voyance, but his observation applies still more emphatically to the 
phenomena of Spiritualism. The passage is from the "Versucht 
iiber Geistersehen," and is quoted in Du Prel's "Philosophy of 
Mysticism." 



CHAPTER XX 

CAUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

"How pure of heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold 
Should be the man whose thought would hold 
An hour's communion with the dead." 

— In Memoriam, xciv. 

Before bringing this book to a close, it is 
desirable we should consider what weight 
can fairly be claimed for the argument often 
urged by candid friends, that the dangers of 
psychical enquiry more than counterbalance 
its possible usefulness. 

I do not deny that there are some risks (in 
what branch of novel enquiry are there not 
risks?), but they have been greatly exagger- 
ated, and those who know least of the whole 
subject are apt to magnify the dangers most. 
As a leading weekly Journal has recently 
said : — 

"In any case it is right and reasonable to investigate 

the phenomena, or alleged phenomena, as long as 

they are investigated in a scientific spirit. No one 

proposes to stop chemical enquiry because foolish 

253 



254 Chapter XX 

people may poison themselves or blow themselves up. 
Similarly, provided the dangers are understood, psychic 
investigation ought not to be forbidden or hindered 
merely because certain psychological and moral risks 
attach thereto."^ 

Public performances of mesmerism by 
travelling showmen ought to be prohibited by 
law, in the same way as public performances 
of the effects of chloroform by a quack doctor 
should be, and would be, prohibited. But 
experiments in thought-transference, to say 
the least, are entirely harmless, so far as my 
knowledge goes, and I speak with some 
authority on this matter.' 

All scientific investigations need to be con- 
ducted with prudence and common sense, and 
when these are exercised in psychical research 
there is no reason to apprehend any dangers, 
such as may undoubtedly befall those who, 
with ignorant and unbalanced minds, and 
from idle curiosity, venture to rush into a 
region which may prove to them a treacherous 
psychical quicksand. 

Certain precautions in the investigation of 

"^spectator, Nov. i8, 1916. 

2 It is amusing to hear how often timid and uninstructed friends 
have said to me that they were sure strange psychical phenomena 
were "the work of the devil or else electricity"; either or both of 
these mysterious agencies being, to many persons, the probable 
cause of all novel and otherwise inexplicable disturbanceg, 



Cautions and Suggestions 255 

spiritualistic phenomena are however neces- 
sary and it may be useful to set them forth. 
First and foremost as regards those taking 
part in a seance for physical phenomena, or 
in the more familiar sittings for automatic 
writing, trance speaking, or clairvoyance, let 
me quote the words of that wise and experi- 
enced spiritualist Mr. Epes Sargent, who long 
ago wrote as follows : — 

"The circumstance that scientific persons have, as 
a general rule, kept aloof from the whole of this 
subject, partly through a misgiving as to their ability 
to cope with it, and partly through their own a priori 
objections and rooted prejudices, has left it largely in 
the hands of those who, from defective training or 
from a lack of the critical faculty, have supposed that 
all which may come from the unseen world must be 
authoritative and right. Messages that violate all the 
laws of logic and common-sense have thus been accepted 
as bona fide communications from the world's great 
departed thinkers."^ 

This was written some years ago but to-day 
it cannot be said that spiritualists are as a 
body so uncritical as they once were. I have 
been invited to address their large gatherings 
and found them as intelligent and anxious to 
arrive at the truth as any other body of 
English men and women. What has struck 

1 "The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism," by Epes Sargent, p, 34.1, 



2^6 Chapter XX 

me most forcibly is the spirit of fellowship 
and freedom of opinion to be found amongst 
them, and the reverent tone of their devotional 
meetings. Doubtless the inexperienced are 
often credulous and too ready to accept the 
messages given by automatic writing or trance 
speaking at their face value. 

As regards the general and uninstructed 
public, it is obvious that these phenomena, 
and the type of alleged clairvoyance described 
on p. 237, lend themselves to gross abuse by 
those charlatans and rogues who prey upon 
the credulity or the distress of mankind. 
This is one of the misfortunes of the whole 
subject, and has so largely discredited it. 
Silly and credulous folk listen and pay for 
the rubbish that is told them by would-be 
astrologers, fortune tellers, crystal-gazers, et 
hoc germs omne. There are genuine cases of 
clairvoyance in the incipent hypnosis induced 
by crystal-vision, as Mr. Andrew Lang and 
others have shown; and there are genuine 
cases of prevision or precognition of events, as 
Mr. Myers has demonstrated, just as. there 
are veridical dreams and premonitions.^ But 
these genuine cases are exceptional and rarely 
to be found in a certain class of advertising 
mediums who swindle the public. 



1 See on all these subjects the "Proceedings of the S.P.R.," or 
Myers' "Human Personality," Chapters VI and IX. 



Cautions and Suggestions 257 

Anyone who possesses genuine psychic 
pov/er has of course a perfect right to be 
remunerated, when his or her time is occupied 
by the exercise of that power. There are, 
I am sure, many honorable and gifted pro- 
fessional mediums, far removed from the 
charlatans referred to in the last paragraph. 
The mischief largely arises when the ignorant 
public go to such honest psychics and expect 
an immediate return for their money. The 
natural tendency of the medium is not to dis- 
appoint the sitter, and the temptation there- 
fore arises to supplement genuine by spurious 
phenomena. It cannot be too often insisted 
on that super-normal gifts are rare and 
elusive, and require patience, knowledge and 
discrimination on the part of the enquirer. 

It is for this reason that I should rather 
dissuade than encourage uninstructed persons 
to resort to professional mediums. Even those 
who yearn to pierce the veil for *'The touch 
of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice 
that is still," would in my opinion, if they 
have not Christian faith, do better to rest con- 
tent with a perusal of the evidence for survival 
that is now being accumulated by rigorous 
and laborious expert enquiry. 

It is easier to give than to follow such ad- 
vice, and some mourners have, after a time, 
found in quiet, continuous, private sittings 
with one or two friends, the assurance they 



258 Chapter XX 

longed to obtain. If they are not thereby 
led to neglect the paramount duties of their 
life and work and if they preserve a sane and 
wholesome judgment no harm can result. 

In a previous chapter I have referred to 
one of the most provoking things in these 
communications, the not infrequent persona- 
tion of great names in history. The absurdity 
is so transparent that only the ignorant are 
misled, but, even with perfectly honest 
psychics, these freaks of the subliminal self 
often add to the perplexity of the enquirer 
and to the contempt of the scoffer. A 
century before modern Spiritualism arose 
Swedenborg uttered warnings on the delusive 
character of many of the communications 
from "spirits." In the "Arcana Caelestia" he 
says : — 

"When spirits begin to speak with man they con- 
join themselves with his thoughts and affections; hence 
it is manifest none other but similar spirits speak with 
man and operate upon him. . . . They put on all 
things of his memory, thus all things which the man 
has learned and imbibed from infancy the spirits 
suppose these things to be their own; thus they act, 
as it were, a part of man with men."^ [This we 
should now call the emergence of the sub-conscious 
self of the psychic] "Wherefore let those who speak 

1 "Arcana Caelestia," §§ 6192 and 5850. 



Cautions and Suggestions 259 

with spirits beware lest they be deceived, when they 
say that they are those whom they know or pretend 
to be."^ 

And so Preiswerk, in a German work pub- 
lished in 1856, giving an account of Spiritual- 
ism among the Swiss, says it was found "that 
the communications by table rapping were 
only an echo and reflection of the mind of 
the persons engaged."^ This, as we know, is 
frequently the case, and indicates that the 
source of some of the "physical phenomena" 
may also be the unconscious self of the 
medium, as I have already suggested. 

Very often, I think, we are apt to judge 
the medium too harshly. We must remember 
the abnormal condition and loss of normal 
self-control involved in mediumship, and 
surely it would be as unjust to charge a 
deeply-entranced medium with conscious 
fraud as to accuse a somnambulist walking 
on a housetop with consciously jeopardising 
his life. It is this weakening of self-control 
and personal responsibility, on the part of a 
medium, that constitutes, in my opinion, the 
chief peril of Spiritualism. Hence the steps 
of a novice need to be taken with care; even 

1 "Spiritual Diary," §§ 1622, 2686, et seq. Cf. also "Apoca- 
lypse Explained," §1182. 

2 Delitzsch, "Biblical Psychology," p. 369. 



26o Chapter XX 

the level-headed should walk warily, and the 
excitable and emotional should have nothing 
to do with it; for the fascination of the 
subject is like a candle to moths, it attracts 
and burns the silly, the credulous, and the 
crazy. 

Every Spiritualist knows the mischief of 
promiscuous sittings of ignorant people, and 
many feel as strongly as I do that paid pro- 
fessional mediums who have been convicted 
of fraud should be sedulously avoided. Dark 
seances are also undesirable and should be dis- 
couraged. The best sittings I ever had have 
been in full light; so with Sir W. Crookes' 
wonderful observations. In fact, Home, I 
believe, always refused to sit in the dark: 
and probably with any medium, by patience 
and perseverance, the light could be gradu- 
ally increased without serious injury to the 
results, and with enormous gain to the ac- 
curacy and precision of the observations. 

Spiritualism has sometimes been accused 
of creating insanity and fostering immorality. 
No reliable evidence in support of such 
sweeping charges has ever been adduced, 
and unsupported accusations of a similar 
character are familiar in the history of nearly 
every new and disturbing phase of thought. 
Isolated cases, no doubt, exist; but, as Mrs. 
Henry Sidgwick points out in an article in 
the ^'Encyclopaedia Britannica," ''the fact 



Cautions and Suggestions 261 

tHat the delusions of the insane not in- 
frequently take the form of converse with 
invisible beings" has probably led to this wide- 
spread and mistaken inference. 

Passing on to other effects produced on , 
the medium, I doubt if any harm has ever 
resulted from sittings for automatic writing 
or speaking, in the normal or trance condition. 
But there is certainly some evidence indicating 
that continual sittings for physical phenomena 
cause an illegitimate and excessive drain on 
the vitality of a medium, creating a nervous 
exhaustion which is apt to lead, in extreme 
cases, to mental derangement, or to an habitual 
resort to stimulants with a no less deplorable 
end. If this be the fact we must, of course, 
be on our guard, as no gain to science would 
ever justify experiment heedless of a risk so 
great; but on this point we want more knowl- 
edge. Sometimes D. D. Home suffered 
severely after a long series of seances. Sir 
W. Crookes states Home was prostrated after 
some experiments, ''pale, speechless and al- 
most fainting he lay upon the floor; showing 
what a drain on his vital powers was caused 
by the evolution of the 'psychic force.' " 

As regards the impression made on the 
general public by such phenomena, Mr. C. C. 
Massey, whose intimate acquaintance with 
the whole subject I have already referred to, 
wrote to me in 1895 as follows: — 



262 Chapter XX 

"Much of the opposition to phenomenal spiritual- 
ism (so-called) arises from disgust of the grotesque 
incongruity between spiritual mysteries and the vulgar 
manifestations of which the world chiefly hears in con- 
nection with this subject." 

Everyone outside a lunatic asylum, at least 
every reverent person, must revolt from the 
nightmare of a spiritual realm peopled by the 
quasi ticket-of-leave ghosts so often met with 
in these manifestations. Compare such buf- 
foonery with our cherished ideals as expressed 
by Archbishop Trench : — 

"Where thou hast touched, O wondrous death, 
Where thou hast come between, 
Lo! there for ever perisheth 
The common and the mean." 

Well-informed and experienced Spiritual- 
ists say that serious risk to the health, both 
of mind and body, of the medium sitting 
for physical manifestations^ is incurred by 
any sudden light or violent awakening of the 
medium from the state of trance. To a 
scofBng public this plea seems obviously 
invented to secure immunity from detection 
of the medium by a sudden seizure in a dark 
sitting. But the sniffs and scoffs of the 
ignorant do not advance our knowledge; 
what we want to know — is there any con- 
clusive evidence one way or the other on this 



Cautions and Suggestions 263 

point? We need experienced and unpreju- 
diced physicians to decide this question. 
Whatever the conclusion might be, it is really 
absurd to suppose that the resources of science 
are so far exhausted that highly-trained in- 
vestigators cannot determine, with reason- 
able precision, whether certain physical 
movements or appearances are due to a known 
or an unknown cause, without resort to the 
aid of clumsy and possibly hazardous police 
expedients. 

It certainly appears to be the fact that the 
best and most conclusive physical manifesta- 
tions occur when the investigator treats the 
phenomena as if they were produced by a 
timid animal, a sensitive living thing, that 
will shrink into obscurity and disappear at a 
sudden disturbance or surprise of any kind, 
often by a mental as well as material shock. 
Imagine you are watching the unfolding of a 
rare and highly organised polyp, and observ- 
ing the capricious movements of its long and 
sensitive tentacles, and you will be able to 
realise how a shock or even a sudden ray of 
light may startle it to instant closure, though 
it may by training be accustomed to unfold 
in full and steady light. 

In concluding this chapter it may be well 
to consider briefly what are the best conditions 
for obtaining evidence in sittings with good 



264 Chapter XX 

psychics. There can be no doubt that suspi- 
cion is fatal to success : sympathy, combined 
with critical faculty, is essential. The rela- 
tion of faith to psychical research has been 
well expressed by the late Mr. C. C. Massey 
and Mr. Stainton Moses. "Faith," Mr. Mas- 
sey says, "is the condition of evidence, the 
key to the gate of the invisible world." In 
reference to this Mr. Moses remarks: — ■ 

"What Mr. Massey calls 'faith' is a predisposition 
and attention, a sympathetic state of mind which estab- 
lishes between an observer and a medium a rapport 
without which no results are to be had that are worth 
the having. So when the dispassionate critic makes 
a merit of the absence of prejudice in his mind he 
does well. It is conceivable that this negative side may 
render him harmless; it may even enable him to 
get personal experience under exceptionally favourable 
circumstances. But, it may be, as Mr. Massey well 
points out, 'that this negative qualification is not enough, 
and . . . there is need of a positive sympathy' before 
any real progress can be made." 

It is useless for the sceptic to say we do 
not require "sympathy" when we are testing 
the evidence for some novel physical or 
chemical discovery. No, they are dealing 
with the world of matter and must conduct 
their experiments in such a way that preju- 
dicial effects in their domain do not vitiate 
the results. But here we are dealing with 



Cautions and Suggestions 265 

delicate psychical conditions and must ascer- 
tain what are the favourable or unfavourable 
conditions for success in that region. Mr. 
Moses goes on to say: — 

"If a man goes to a medium with the strongest 
desire to witness phenomena, but bringing with him 
the deterrent attitude of mind which is the antipodes 
of faith, he will most probably fail, unless he is fortun- 
ate enough to meet with a fully-developed psychic 
whom his coldness cannot wholly chill." "I should 
say," Mr. Massey remarks, "that the most unfavour- 
able disposition to take to a medium is suspicion, and 
the most favourable is confidence. But this is to de- 
liver oneself over a prey to the deceiver! Yes, such 
men do get taken in." I agree with Mr. Massey; they 
do. I also agree with him when he adds, "I believe 
that their success will be, on the whole, of such an 
amount and character as more than to compensate for 
these disadvantages."^ 

Confidence is certainly misplaced when you 
are sitting with a doubtful or fraudulent 
medium, and in any case it must not be re- 
garded as synonymous with credulity. It is 
the most experienced investigator who is the 
least credulous, and it is also unquestionably 
true that it is those psychical researchers who 
bristle with suspicion, that have never been 
able to obtain conclusive evidence of the 
physical phenomena of spiritualism. They 

'^ Light, Oct. 23, 1886. 



266 Chapter XX 

are not abler or more critical investigators 
than Sir W. Crookes and other scientific men, 
who have had overwhelming proofs, but they 
bring with them a psychical atmosphere that 
is as unfavourable to success as a damp atmos- 
phere is to the working of a f rictional or Holtz 
electrical machine. 

It was said of old "In quietness and 
confidence shall be your strength," and this 
attitude of mind, combined with alert observa- 
tion and unwearied patience, we commend to 
the psychical researcher who wishes to obtain 
the best results. 



^art 6 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE LESSON OF PHILISOPHY IN THE 
INTERPRETATION OF NATURE 

"By that I know the learned lord you are! 
What you don't touch, is lying leagues afar; 
What you don't grasp, is wholly lost to you; 
What you don't reckon, think you, can't be true; 
What you don't weigh, it has no weight, alas 
What you don't coin, you're sure it will not pass!"^ 

In an early chapter (III.) we discussed the 
objections raised by science and religion to 
spiritualistic phenomena and briefly referred 
to the fact that one reason which has pre- 
vented the general recognition of these 
phenomena, is because modern science, or 
rather the dominant school of scientific 
thought, is, or perhaps was, essentially 
materialistic. This school, as Mr. F. W. H. 

1 Bayard Taylor's translation of "Goethe's Faust," Part II, 
p. x8. 

267 



268 Chapter XXI 

Myers has eloquently said, "insists, in tones 
louder sometimes and more combative than 
the passionless air of science is willing to echo 
or convey, that all enquiries into man's 
psychical nature, all enquiries which regard 
him as possibly more than a portion of organ- 
ised matter, are no longer open, but closed, 
and closed against his aspirations for ever." 
The materialist is imprisoned within the 
limits of his senses; hence a world which has 
no continuous relation with his senses has no 
existence for him. Life without ponderable 
matter he confidently asserts is impossible, 
and he prophesies that the atoms of such 
matter contain within themselves, as Dr. 
Tyndall asserted in his British Association 
address, "the promise and potency of every 
form and quality of life."^ 

Science having done so much for human 
thought and life, public opinion naturally in- 
clined to the view held by a recent school of 
scientific thought, which denies the possibility 
of any life without protoplasm, i.e., a particu- 
lar grouping of the molecules of matter which 
forms the basis of all earthly life. Many of 
our leading physicists have however disso- 
ciated themselves from this habit of thought. 
So long ago as 1881, that eminent man 
Professor Balfour Stewart, who has long 

1 "Fragments of Science," Vol. II, p. aio. 



The Lesson of Philosophy 269 

since passed into the unseen, wrote to me as 
follows : — 

, "It seems quite clear that the scientific recognition 
of the unseen, is the point wanting in the intellectual 
teaching of our race, and I do not doubt that this will 
be provided for." 

His confidence seems to have been abun- 
dantly justified, for the psychological climate 
of to-day is distinctly more favourable to 
psychical research. Physicists no longer be- 
lieve in the Lucretian atom "strong in solid 
singleness," but are pushing the ultimate 
nature of matter into the realm of the in- 
comprehensible and intangible ether. The 
mechanistic theory of the universe, which so 
delights the German mind, is breaking down. 
The confident and complacent assumptions of 
materialism have it is true long been im- 
pugned by philosophy. In fact — 

"The common supposition that the material universe 
and the conscious beings around us are directly and 
indubitably known, and constitute a world of 'positive' 
facts, on which reason can certainly pronounce without 
any exercise of faith ... is an entire mistake, based 
upon astonishing ignorance of the essential limitations 
of human knowledge, of which thinkers who lived in 
the very dawn of philosophy were perfectly aware. 
The fact is, we are equally obliged to transcend pheno- 
mena, and to put faith in events and powers and 



270 Chapter XXI 

realities which do not appear when we recognise the 
past, or the distant, or the material universe, or the 
minds of men, as when we infer the existence of God 
and of the unseen world. "^ 

Matter, the world outside our conscious- 
ness, is the mystery to be explained; for we 
only know matter in terms of consciousness, 
hence we can never find in matter an intel- 
ligible explanation of mind and will. A 
mechanistic theory of the universe reduces 
consciousness to a mere by-product of matter, 
and volition to an illusion of the mind. 

And if science replies to this that the 
premises on which it rests are furnished by 
immediate experience in the shape of observa- 
tion and experiment — 

"What are we to say about these same experiences 
when we discover, not only that they may be wholly 
false, but that they are never wholly true ; . . . nine- 
tenths of our immediate experiences of objects are 
visual, and all visual experiences, without exception, 
are, according to science, erroneous."^ 

that is to say, the degrees of brightness, form, 
or colour whereby we perceive objects are, 
as optics teaches, not properties of the things 
seen but sensations produced in us by undula- 
tions in the ether. Hence, psychologically 

1 "The Realistic Assumptions of Modern Science Examined," 
by Professor Herbert, M.A., p. 455. 

2 "The Foundations of Belief," by the Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour. 



The Lesson of Philosophy 271 

regarded, it may be said, as Mr. Balfour goes 
on to remark, that — 

"Our perceptions, regarded as sources of information, 
are not merely occasionally inaccurate but habitually 
mendacious,"^ 

For instance, every stimulus given to the 
optic nerve, whether by light, or pressure, 
or electricity, or a chemical reagent, reveals 
itself as a flash of light and is so called by us. 
The same may be said, mutatis mutandis, of 
the other specialised sense organs. 

Again, how different would be our concept 
of the external world if we were deprived of 
some of our senses, such for example as sight 
or touch; and again how different if we had 
other gateways of sense, profounder avenues 
to a knowledge of the world outside ourselves. 
If we were restricted to a single sense, such 
as sight, we should infer all phenomena, all 
material things, to consist of variations in 
luminosity or colour. Hence our ideas of the 
world would expand or contract in proportion 
to the extent of the means by which that world 
is perceived. 

It is our ignorance, or our forgetfulness, of 
these facts, our neglect of the vast difference 
between our perceptions and the realities for 

1 "The Foundations of Belief," page m. 



272 Chapter XXI 

which they stand, that gives rise to many 
of the perplexities we encounter, and some 
of the conflicts between science and faith. 
This is worth a moment's further considera- 
tion by those who have not considered the 
subject. 

The first lesson taught by mental philosophy 
is that all we know of external objects and 
material phenomena are certain sensations 
within us, as already remarked; of the things- 
in-themselves we know absolutely nothing. 
The things we do know are certain states of 
consciousness, certain symbols — or tekmeria, 
as the late Dr. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 
proposed to call them^ — signs evoked in our 
mind by events happening in the universe 
outside our mind. Accordingly we do not 
perceive the actual material world, nor any- 
thing like it, and have not, therefore, the 
remotest idea of what the thing we call matter 
is in itself. 

We can watch the movements of a tele- 
graphic needle and learn to read the message 
it brings, but the moving needle does not en- 
able us to perceive the operator at the other 
end who is causing it to move, nor does it 
even remotely resemble the operator; its 



1 See a suggestive paper by Dr. Stoney in the "Proceedings of 
the Royal Dublin Society," Vol. VI, p. 475. 



The Lesson of Philosophy 273 

signals give us, it is true, an intelligible mes- 
sage, but it is intelligible only because the 
intelligence of the operator has been and is 
related to our intelligence. In like manner 
the mental signs of our brain and nervous 
mechanism give us of the material world 
outside are not the things, nor a resemblance 
to the things, in themselves; the real world 
around us, the world of ontology, is absolutely 
inaccessible to us. But the reason why the 
material world is intelligible, why we can 
interpret the signs it gives us, is because 
there is an Intelligence behind the universe 
which has been and is related to our in- 
telligence. 

To the pure materialist the universe is 
self-sustained and has no deeper meaning 
than the appearance it presents to our senses; 
these appearances are to him the ultimate 
reality. If he forms a mechanical theory of 
nature by endowing atoms with some occult 
power, or consciousness, he confers on them 
the very properties which have to be ex- 
plained. Hence we are driven to believe in a 
Supreme Intelligence and to regard the uni- 
verse as the expression of the Divine Thought 
perpetually sustained by the Divine Will. 
This is surely the simplest and truest interpre- 
tation of nature. 

There are few more honoured names in 
science than that of Sir John Herschel, and 



274 Chapter XXI 

in this connection a passage from one of his 
essays appears to me so valuable a contribution 
to our belief in a Supreme Mind that I venture 
to quote it. The whole essay, like all Sir John 
wrote, is full of luminous thought. 

"The universe presents us with an assemblage of 
phenomena — physical, vital, and intellectual — the con- 
necting link between the worlds of intellect and matter 
being that of organised vitality, occupying the whole 
domain of animal and vegetable life, throughout which, 
in some way inscrutable to us, movements among the 
molecules of matter are originated of such a character 
as apparently to bring them under the control of an 
agency other than physical superseding the ordinary 
laws which regulate the movements of inanimate matter, 
or, in other words, giving rise to movements which 
would not result from the action of those laws unin- 
terfered with ; and therefore implying, on the very same 
principle, the origination of force. 

"The first and greatest question which Philosophy 
has to resolve in its attempts to make out a Cosmos — 
to bring the whole of the phenomena exhibited in these 
three domains of existence under the contemplation of 
the mind as a congruous whole — is, whether we can 
derive any light from our internal consciousness of 
thought, reason, power, will, motive, design, or not; 
whether, that is to say, Nature is or is not more 
interpretable by supposing these things (be they what 
they may) to have had, or to have, to do with its ar- 
rangements, 

"Constituted as the human mind is, if Nature be 
not interpretable through these conceptions it is not 



The Lesson of Philosophy 275 

interpretable at all; and the only reason we can have 
for troubling ourselves about it is either the utilitarian 
one of bettering our condition by 'subduing Nature' 
to our use, through a more complete understanding 
of its 'laws,' so as to throw ourselves into its grooves, 
and thereby reach our ends more readily and effectually; 
or the satisfaction of that sort of aimless curiosity 
which can find its gratification in scrutinising every- 
thing and comprehending nothing. But if these at- 
tributes of mind are not consentaneous, they are useless 
in the way of explanation. Will without motive, power 
without reason, thought opposed to reason, would be 
admirable in explaining a chaos, but would render little 
aid in accounting for anything else."^ 

It was formerly so integral a part of modern 
scientific thought to regard mind and matter 
as distinct entities that we forget this com- 
mon dualistic conception may be an entirely 
fallacious idea. Just as language is a mani- 
festation of thought and indissolubly con- 
nected with it, so matter may be only a 
manifestation to us of spirit. To human intel- 
ligence, spirit is always manifested through 
matter; so that spirit and matter, like force 
and matter, or thought and language, seem 
to us inseverable and even unthinkable apart. 
The essential unity which underlies thought 
and its expression in language affords an 

1 "On the Origin of Force," p. 473. "Lectures on Scientific 
Subjects," by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Bart, D.C.L., F.R.S,, etc. 



276 Chapter XXI 

interesting analogy to spirit and matter. As 
a suggestive writer has remarked — 

"Language is the mode in which thought takes shape, 
its way of becoming known to itself, and therefore 
dependent on thought for existence, but their relation- 
ship is a far more intimate one than that of cause and 
effect. . . . We cannot 'account for' thought by the 
laws of language, simply because thought unconsciously 
makes those laws by way of attaining to a clearer recog- 
nition of itself. In the same way we cannot 'account 
for' mind by the laws of matter, because those laws 
are, in reality, the principles according to which human 
intelligence apprehends the material universe. In them, 
mind recognises itself in the external world. As thought 
is essentially self-manifesting so the life of the spirit 
is essentially self-manifesting, hence as language is the 
utterance of the one so matter is the utterance of the 
other."^ 



Experimental science Is still young and has 
not wholly emerged from the Cartesian stage 
of thought where matter and mind, nature 
and spirit are absolute opposites, their an- 
tagonism reconciled only in the Divine in- 
comprehensible Will. As our knowledge 
progresses and our interpretation of nature 
becomes more adequate, we begin to recognise 



1 "Progressive Revelation," Chap. V, by Miss Caillard; see 
also my brochure entitled "Creative Thought," published by 
Watkins, Cecil Court, London, W.C. 



The Lesson of Philosophy 277 

that the dualism and antithesis of nature and 
spirit disappear, and miracles as well as all 
super-normal phenomena become less in- 
credible, when nature is seen to be, as Novalis 
said, "an illuminated table of the contents of 
the spirit." 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE MYSTERY OF HUMAN PERSONALITY 

"One Life through all the immense creation runs, 
One Spirit is the moon's, the sea's, the sun's; 
All forms in the air that fly, on the earth that creep, 
And the unknown nameless monsters of the deep — 
Each breathing thing obeys one Mind's control, 
And in all substance is a single Soul." 

—Virgil} 

A BRIEF consideration of some aspects of 
human personality was necessary in an earlier 
portion of this book. It may not be out of 
place in conclusion to note some of the higher 
aspects of this subject. We have seen that 
our personality is a very complex and myster- 
ious thing. Probably in each of us, certainly 
in many, there are potentialities which far 
outstrip the capabilities of our conscious 
voluntary intelligence; nay more, which 
transcend the limitations of our senses, of 
space, of time, and even of our thought and 
consciousness. But if these super-normal 

1 Book VI of the "^neid," translated by Mr. Myers. 
278 



The Mystery of Personality 279 

faculties exist — and of their existence such 
acute thinkers as Schopenhauer and E. von 
Hartmann were convinced — other manifesta- 
tions of them than those we are acquainted 
with in spiritualism, somnambulism, hypnotic 
trance, etc., might be expected. 

The dark continent within us, is in fact 
much more than a hidden record of unheeded 
or forgotten past impressions; there is an 
M/^r<a;-liminal as well as a sub-Ximiwdl self;^ 
something that has higher perceptive powers 
than our normal consciousness, something in 
us that is able to respond to directed thought, 
whether the thinker be "in the body or out 
of the body," something that links our 
individual life to the Source of that life, and 
to the ocean of universal life. This was 
firmly believed by that great philosopher, 
Kant, who, anticipating our present knowl- 
edge, slight as that is, was led by the mere 
strength of his penetrating intellect to assert: 

It is therefore, as good as proved . . . that the 
human soul, even in this life, stands in indissoluble 
community with all immaterial natures of the spirit 

1 Mr. Myers has used the word supra-liminal to connote our 
conscious waking life, but this might perhaps more appropriately 
be called cis-liminalj within the threshold of consciousness: I 
have used the world ultra-liminal to signify the higher tran- 
scendental self. The great work on "Human Personality" by Mr. 
Myers (which was published long after this chapter was 
written in the original edition of this book) should be read by- 
all who wish a fuller knowledge of the subject. 



28o Chapter XXII 

world, that it mutually acts upon them and receives 
from them impressions, of which, however, as man, it 
is unconscious, as long as all goes well. 

And again he says : — 

It is, therefore, truly one and the same subject 
which belongs at the same time to the visible and to 
the invisible world, but (since representations of the 
one world are not associated with ideas of the other) 
what I think as spirit is not remembered by me as 
man.^ 

This was also Swedenborg's view. He re- 
peatedly states : — 

Man is so constituted that he is at the same time 
in the spiritual world and in the natural world: the 
spiritual world is where the angels are, and the natural 
world is where men are. 

Plotinus, who lived in the third century, 
also held a very similar belief, speaking of 
men as "amphibia," who live partly in the 

^Kant: "Werke" (Rosenkranz), vii, 53, 59, quoted by Dr. Du 
Prel in his "Philosophy of Mysticism" (Redway, London). This 
quotation is from Kant's "Dreams of a Spirit-seer," a transla- 
tion of which is published by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Du 
Prel's work has been, with loving labour, admirably translated 
by the late Mr. C. C. Massey, not the least valuable part of the 
work being the translator's own suggestive preface. Mr. Massey 
has also rendered great service to English readers by his trans- 
lation of E. von Hartmann's "Spiritism." Like other candid en- 
quirers, this eminent German philosopher, having with pains- 
taking care made himself acquainted with the facts of Spiritual- 
ism, states that they afford "an urgent challenge to science to 
enter upon the exact research of this phenomenal province." 



The Mystery of Personality 281 

natural and partly in the spiritual world. 
In fact, the teaching of the Neo-platonists 
and mysticism generally is that the soul has 
a two-fold life, a lower and a higher, 
lamblichus believed that even in sleep the 
soul is freed from the constraint of the body 
and enters on its divine life of intelligence: 
the night-time of the body being the day-time 
of the soul.^ The "ecstasy" of Plotinus, and 
earlier still of Philo, was, according to them, 
the temporary liberation of the soul from its 
finite consciousness and its union with the 
Infinite.^ 

Thus we see the opinion of many of the 
world's great thinkers in the past is quite in 
accord with recent evidence, v/hich teaches 
us that our Ego is more than our self- 
consciousness reveals. As the roots of a tree 
are hidden in the earth, so we may regard 
the root of our Ego as sunk in a world beyond 
our consciousness, and the Neo-platonic idea 
— that the soul is only partially known in its 

^ See that delightful and well-known work, Vaughan's "Hours 
with the Mystics." Professor Harnack's article on "Neo-platon- 
ism," in the Encyclopadia Briiannica, should be read by all who 
are interested in this subject. 

2 Indeed, a belief in the soul's power to have commerce with 
the spirit-world has a place in Greek philosophy as early as the 
6th century B.C., for Aeschylus was echoing a Pythagorean doc- 
trine when he wrote, "The mind in sleep is bright with eyes" 
(to receive spiritual impressions). I am indebted to my friend 
the Rev. M. A. Bayfield for this and many other valued sug- 
gestions in this book. 



282 Chapter XXII 

normal, or physically-conditioned, conscious- 
ness — becomes intelligible. 

There is certainly a world beyond our 
normal consciousness from which neither 
space nor time divides us, but only the 
barrier of our sense-perceptions. This barrier 
constitutes what has been well termed the 
''threshold of sensibility," and limits the 
area of our consciousness. In the progress 
of evolution from lower to higher forms 
of life this threshold has been successively 
shifted, with a corresponding exaltation of 
consciousness. The organism of an oyster, 
for instance, constitutes a threshold which 
shuts it out from the greater part of our 
sensible world; in like manner the physical 
organism of man forms a threshold which 
separates him from the larger and trans- 
cendental world of which he forms a part. 
But this threshold is not immovable. Occa- 
sionally in rapture, in dream, and in hypnotic 
trance it is shifted, and the human spirit 
temporarily moves in "worlds not realised" 
by sense. In the clairvoyance of deep hyp- 
notic sleep, and in somnambulism, the thresh- 
old is still further shifted and a higher intel- 
ligence emerges, with a clearness and power 
proportional to the more complete cessation of 
'the functions and consciousness of our ordinary 
waking life. 

This intelligence, as has been shown above, 



The Mystery of Personality 283 

has powers and perceptions wider and deeper 
than those of the normal waking conscious- 
ness. Accordingly, since the exercise of these 
faculties in our daily life is apparently hin- 
dered by our bodily organism, we may infer 
that when we are freed from "this muddy 
vesture of decay," and the soul enters on its 
larger life, these faculties will no longer be 
trammelled as they are now. As, one by one, 
the avenues of sense close for ever, the 
threshold of sensibility is not suddenly re- 
moved; and so, as our loved ones pass from 
us, it is probable that in most cases the "dawn 
behind all dawns" creeps gently upward, 
slowly awakening them to the wider and 
profounder consciousness that, for good or ill, 
awaits us all. 

"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep, — 
He hath awaken'd from the dream of life."^ 



1 Shelley: "Adonals." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE DIVINE GROUND OF THE SOUL 
RE-INCARNATION 

"All outward vision yields to that within, 
Whereof nor creed nor canon holds the key; 
We only feel that we have been 
And evermore shall be." 

— Bayard Taylor. 

The transcendental phenomena we have been 
discussing so far from excluding, of necessity 
presuppose the "Divine ground of the soul," 
to use a phrase of the mystics. Encompass- 
ing the super-normal within us, lies the 
supernatural, in the true meaning of that 
word. For "Behind consciousness itself must 
certainly be placed the ultimate Reality of 
which consciousness offers only a reflection 
or faint representation."^ The intimacy and 
immediacy of the union between the soul and 
God, the Infinite manifesting itself in and 
through the finite, is the fundamental idea, 

1 See upon this subject the striking work on "Personality" by 
the Rev. J, R. Illingworth, especially Lecture II and the note on 
p. 240, where the views of von Hartmann and Lotze are con- 
trasted. 

284: 



The Province of Religion 285 

not only of the mystics, but of the New 
Testament, and of all great Christian thinkers. 
The attainment of this profounder conscious- 
ness, and therefore of our full personality, is, 
however, the province of religion, the "true 
theme of which is not the future life but the 
higher life." 

This knowledge of God, not of the methods 
of his working, but the consciousness of His 
presence, is what is meant by religion. From 
this point of view it is obvious Spiritualism is 
not and cannot be a religion, which rests essen- 
tially upon those higher instincts of the soul 
we call faith. For, as Canon Scott Holland 
says in "Lux Mundi" (p. 15) — 

"Faith is the power by which conscious life attaches 
itself to God. . . . Faith, then, opens an entirely new 
career to creaturely existence; and the novelty of this 
career is expressed in the word 'Supernatural.' The 
supernatural world opens upon us as soon as faith 
is in being." 

In this sense also Spritualism cannot even 
afford to us knowledge of the supernatural, as 
it is often claimed to do."^ In its true meaning 
supernatural knowledge is incommunicable 
from without; it is the voice of the Spirit 

1 In Appendix "A" I have discussed more fully the conflicting 
popular notions that Spiritualism is on the one hand a "recru- 
descence of superstition" and on the other, "evidence of the 
supernatural." 



286 Chapter XXIII 

to the spirit, or, as Plotinus said, 'The flight 
of the Alone to the alone," for "the soul must 
be very still to hear God speak." Of this 
Divine unveiling the humblest human souls 
have knowledge, no less than the greatest 
prophets and poets. 

"For more than once when I 
Sat all alone, revolving in myself 
The word that is the symbol of myself, 
The mortal limit of the Self was loosed, 
And past into the Nameless, as a cloud 
Melts into Heaven. I touch'd my limbs, the limbs 
Were strange, not mine — and yet no shade of doubt 
But utter clearness, and thro' loss of Self 
The gain of such large life as match'd with ours 
Were Sun to spark — unshadowable in words. 
Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."^ 

It is this "loss of self," this self-surrender, 
which enables the consciousness of God to 
enter into our life. Our own will dies and 
God's will lives in us, and in so far as this is 
the case we attain the object of our earthly 
existence, that is, the realisation of a higher 
and wider consciousness, the discovery of our 
true personality, which is immortal. This 
cannot persist until it has been attained, and 
its attainment is the Way of Life; as Lotze 
says, "Perfect personality is in God alone." 

1 Tennyson: "The Ancient Sage." 



The Question of Immortality 287 

In other words, when we are conscious of the 
Divine life and love dwelling within us, our 
human life becomes a conscious partaker of 
the endless life of God ; without this conscious- 
ness human life is not only unsatisfying but 
unenduring/ 

Here let me remark that the inference 
commonly drawn that spirit communications 
teach us the necessary and inherent immortal- 
ity of the soul is, in my opinion, a mischievous 
error. It is true they show us that life can 
exist in the unseen, and — if we accept the 
evidence for "identity" — that some we have 
known on earth are still living and near us, 
but entrance on a life after death does not 
necessarily mean immortality, i.e., eternal 
persistence of our personality; nor does it 
prove that survival after death extends to all. 
Obviously no experimental evidence can ever 
demonstrate either of these beliefs, though it 
may and does remove the objections raised as 
to the possibility of survival. 

There are many who believe with the devout 
and learned Henry More, and other Platon- 
ists, together with several eminent thinkers of 

1 This view of potential immortality was and is held not only 
by some learned theologians, both ancient and modern (see Rev. 
Ed. White's "Life in Christ"), but also by not a few devout and 
eminent scientific men such as the late Sir G. G. Stokes, a past 
President of the Royal Society of London. 



288 Chapter XXIII 

the present day, such as Professor McTaggart, 
that the survival of the soul after death 
involves the assumption of its pre-natal ex- 
istence. If so, as Mr. C. C. Massey has said, 
"The whole conception of immortality under- 
goes an important change if we regard the 
personal consciousness with its Ego as a mere 
partial and temporary limitation of a larger 
self, the growth of many seasons, as it were, 
of earthly life." 

The lack of any memory of our past exist- 
ences, if such there were, has been urged 
against the idea of re-incarnation, but this 
may be only a temporary eclipse. It is pos- 
sible that recollection of our past lives may 
gradually return, as in the course of our 
spiritual progress we gain a larger life and 
deeper consciousness: the underlying sub- 
liminal life, may be the golden thread that 
binds into one all our past and future lives. 

As this question of re-incarnation is at 
present attracting much attention it may be 
of interest to quote another sentence or two 
from the devout and suggestive writer named 
above : — 

"We may find," remarks Mr. C. C. Massey, "the 
ground of re-incarnation in an attraction to this 
world or principle of life. . . Whatever has brought 
us here once will presumably bring us here again 
and again till the motive power changes. . . . 
Regeneration (a new-nature) alone exempts from 



Re-incarnation 289 

re-incarnation; the bonds of desire to the external 
nature being thus severed, all the tendrils of at- 
tachment to it are thus eradicated. . . . The idea of 
Christianity it seems to me, is that this attachment 
is broken (for all who desire it broken) by attachment 
to the Personal Power, that has, in principle, accom- 
plished the rupture. The Buddhist says 'conquer 
desire,' but that is only negative: Christ supplies the 
positive; desire Him and you are already free from 
the grip of earthly desire: for the two desires cannot 
co-exist."^ 

Doubtless some readers will consider the 
foregoing remarks out of place in this book, 
but the subject of Spiritualism is so intimately 
connected with, and throws so much light on, 
the whole question of eschatology, that I 
have ventured to enter upon an inexhaustible 
subject, one of age-long interest and discus- 
sion. Immortality, Matthew Arnold defined 
as 'living in the eternal order which never 
dies'; but the soul craves for more than an 
impersonal existence of love and goodness, 
truth and beauty, which are in the eternal 
order, timeless and boundless. 

Let us however recognise our ignorance, 
we cannot see far ahead, ''We have but faith : 
we cannot know." It may be as Indian 
philosophy teaches, and the learned Domini- 
can martyr, Bruno, believed, that human 

1 "Thoughts of a Modern Mystic," edited by Sir W. F. Barrett, 
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 



290 Chapter XXIII 

personality, the individualisation of the soul, 
is but a fleeting event, which in the infinite 
bosom of time has only an ephemeral stability 
and duration, though as a portion of the 
Divine life it is immortal. The whole uni- 
verse was to Bruno, as to many later thinkers, 
a living Cosmos, an eternal transmutation of 
the World-soul, of the ever present Divine 
Word. 

Certainly all religions must admit that God 
is the centre, and the manifestation of God 
the circumference, of all existence. Within 
this vast circle lies the whole creation, like 
the myriad cell life in the human body. Each 
of these cells in our body has a life of its own, 
yet all are related to a unitary consciousness, 
a personality which far transcends the life of 
each cell. Some mysterious mode of inter- 
communication possibly exists, even would 
appear to exist, between the individual cells 
and the sub-conscious self. 

Thus also we may conceive the human race 
as the constituent cells, the many members, 
of the one Body to which all are related and 
yet all transcended in the one supreme in- 
effable Being. Nor can we doubt that some 
mode of communication and influence passes 
between the Creator and all creaturely exist- 
ence. For — 

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." 



Re-incarnation 291 

"Inevitably," Frederick Myers remarks, "as our link 
with other spirits strengthens, as the life of the or- 
ganism pours more fully through the individual cell, 
we shall feel love more ardent, wider wisdom, higher 
joy; perceiving that this organic unity of Soul, which 
forms the inward aspect of the telepathic law, is in 
itself the Order of the Cosmos, the Summation of 
Things."! 

On the possibility of this Divine influx 
some light is thrown by the discovery of 
Telepathy, the implications of which we will 
briefly consider in the concluding chapter. 



1 "Human Personality," ii, 291. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

TELEPATHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 

"Each creature holds an insular point in space; 
Yet what man stirs a finger, breathes a sound, 
But all the multitudinous beings round 
In all the countless worlds, with time and place 
For their conditions, down to the central base, 
Thrill, happy, in vibration and rebound, 
Life answering life across the vast profound, 
In full antiphony, by a common grace?" 

I HAVE dealt in this book mainly with 
Spiritualistic phenomena; it was not my 
intention here to treat of other subjects of 
psychical research, most of which are of a less 
startling character and some, like hypnotism 
and telepathy, are, in my opinion, almost as 
fully established as many of the accepted 
truths of science. We have added consider- 
ably to the weight of evidence since Schopen- 
hauer wrote: "Who at this day doubts the 
facts of mesmerism and its clairvoyance is not 
to be called sceptical but ignorant/' And this 
remark would now apply to other branches 
of our enquiry. Deeply interesting scientific 

iMrs. Browning: Sonnet on "Life,'' 
292 



Telepathy and its Implications 293 

problems lie before us in the immediate 
future. I can only hint at some of these. 

In Thought-transference is it the idea or 
the word that is transmitted; is it the emotion 
or the expression of the emotion? I believe it 
is the former in both cases. But if so, may not 
this afiford a hint towards the possibility of an 
interchange of thought amongst men in spite 
of differences in language? Language is but 
a clumsy instrument of thought, "consisting 
as it does of arbitrary signs, it is a rudiment 
of a material system" ;^ and we may expect it 
to disappear under the action of evolutionary 
forces. For how much more perfectly should 
we be able to transmit complex ideas and 
subtle emotions by the naked intercourse of 
minds than by the mechanism of speech. 

Or again, may not the animals share with 
man this power? Evidence exists that 



1 Isaac Taylor : "Physical Theory of Another Life," p. io2. 
This book, written nearly fifty years before telepathy was heard 
of, contains some suggestions very like the above, though I was 
unaware of this till quite lately. Owing to the use of the phrase 
thought-reading, the absurd idea is prevalent that thought-trans- 
ference means reading all the thoughts in another's mind. Only 
a dominant idea in the agent's. mind is passed on to the percipi- 
ent, and that apparently requires an effort of will, so that filching 
one another's thoughts is not possible, and the sanctity and privacy 
of our minds must always be within our power and possessions, 
so long as we retain our true self-hood. Professor H. Drum- 
mond, in his "Ascent of Man," has also the same idea as I. Tay- 
lor: "Telepathy," he remarks, "is theoretically the next stage 
in the evolution of language," p. 233. 



294 Chapter XXIK 

domestic animals often perceive apparitions, 
and are frequently keener in their perception 
than man. It would be worth while to try 
whether animals are open to telepathy; will 
a favourite dog, for example, respond to the 
unuttered call of his name, no sense percep- 
tion reaching him? The habits of ants and 
bees seem to indicate the possession of a mode 
of communication unknown to us. If our 
domestic animals are in any degree open to 
thought-transference, may we not thus get into 
somewhat closer communion with them? 

But leaving aside such speculations, the 
wider recognition of the fact of thought- 
transference will inevitably lead to its culture 
and development. Does it not already play 
some part in the growing sense of sympathy 
and humanity we find in the world around? 
But if it were as common here among men, 
as it is doubtless common in the intercourse 
of the spiritual world, what a change would 
be wrought ! If we were involuntarily sharers 
in one another's pleasures and pains, the 
brotherhood of the race would not be a pious 
aspiration or a strenuous effort, but the reality 
of all others most vividly before us; the factor 
in our lives which would dominate all our 
conduct. What would be the use of a 
luxurious mansion at the West End and 
Parisian cooks if all the time the misery and 
starvation of our fellow creatures at the East 



Telepathy and its Implications 295 

End were telepathlcally part and parcel of 
our daily lives? On the other hand what 
bright visions and joyous emotions would 
enter into many dreary and loveless lives if 
this state of human responsiveness were 
granted to the race! For, as Shakespeare 
says, in one of his Sonnets (XLIV.) : — 

"If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, 
Injurious distance would not stop my way." 

It may be that telepathy is the survival of 
an old and once common possession of the 
human race that has fallen into disuse and 
almost died out with the growth of language. 
More probably, I think, it is a rudimentary 
faculty, or possibly an early and special case 
of the great human rapport which is slowly 
awakening the race to the sense of a larger 
self: to 

"... A heart that beats 
In all its pulses with the common heart 
Of human-kind, which the same things make glad, 
The same make sorry." 

In relation to psychical enquiry, however, 
one often hears the question still raised "Of 
what use is it?" When all is said and done, 
and the facts we are slowly accumulating 
are generally recognised and accredited, what 
will be the gain? None at all to such as 
Peter Bell, to whom a primrose by the river's 



296 Chapter XXIF 

brim will only excite regret that he cannot 
eat or drink it; none to the simple, contented 
heart; none to those saints whose supreme 
faith has enabled them to transcend all 
earthly doubt, and who daily "live as seeing 
Him who is invisible" ; but very much to 
the rest of mankind, in whom most of us are 
included. 

For, as the learned Dr. Glanville says in 
the dedication of his famous "Sadducismus 
Triumphatus," "these things relate to our 
biggest interests; if established, they secure 
some of the outworks of religion, and regain 
a parcel of ground 'which bold infidelity hath 
invaded." But our scope is wider than Glan- 
ville had before him, and our philosophical 
need is greater. A false and paralysing mate- 
rialistic philosophy must either disappear' 
or be reconstructed, when the phenomena we 
attest can no longer be denied; and so, too, 
the popular assaults on the Christian religion, 
based on its incredibility, will be deprived of 
much of the force they now possess in certain 
minds. 

The most profound phange in human 
thought that has occurred since the Christian 
era will, in all probability, follow the general 
recognition by science of the immanence of a 
spiritual world. Faith will no longer be 
staggered by trying to conceive of life in the 
unseen; death will no tonger be felt to have 



Telepathy and its Implications 297 

so icy a grip over even Christian hearts; 
miracles will no longer seem to be the super- 
stitious relics of a barbarous age; the "prayer 
of faith" will no longer find an adequate 
explanation in the subjective response it 
evokes, nor the "Word of the Lord" in mere 
human aspiration. On the contrary, if, as I 
hold, telepathy be indisputable, if our crea- 
turely minds can, without voice or language, 
impress each other, the Infinite and Over- 
shadowing Mind is likely thus to have re- 
vealed itself in all ages to responsive human 
hearts. -To some gifted souls were given the 
inner ear, the open vision, the inspired utter- 
ance, but to all these comes at times the still 
small voice, the faint echo within us of that 
larger Life which is slowly but surely express- 
ing itself in humanity as the ages gradually 
unfold. Wordsworth felt this when he wrote, 

"Not less I deem that there are Powers 
Which of themselves our minds impress." 

But even to those who prefer to regard these 
phenomena from a purely scientific aspect 
there will be great gain. I have already 
alluded to the possible solution which they 
afford of many perplexing, and at present in- 
scrutable, scientific problems, the opening up 
of new regions of fruitful experimental en- 
quiry, the impulse they will give to a truer 
psychology and a healthier philosophy. But 



298 Chapter XXIV 

in addition to this, they will tend to bring 
more forcibly before our minds the solidarity 
of the race, the immanence of the unseen, the 
dominance of thought and spirit — in a word, 
the transcendent unity and continuity of life. 
Our scientific as well as our political memo- 
ries are short-lived. We only see vividly that 
in the midst of which we live. What has 
gone before us is as if it had not been and 
never could be. So the science of to-day 
forgets, as has been well said, 

"That the tendency of all the earlier systems of 
physical philosophy was to supernaturalise natural 
actions, whereas the tendency of modern science is to 
force into the phenomenal world ultimate causes that 
must ever be ultra-phenomenal. The older writers 
on physical science delighted in symbolical designs in 
which the forces of nature were represented each at 
his appointed work, and over all they placed a cloud 
from which issued the hand of God, directing the 
several agents of the Universe."^ 

The symbol is not unjust, for, 

" 'Tis the sublime of man, 
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves 
Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole! 
. . . But 'tis God 
Difused through all, that doth make all one whole. "^ 

'•^Rodwell: Preface to "Dictionary of Science." 
2 Coleridge: "Religious Musings." 



Telepathy and its Implications 299 

We are not isolated in or from the great 
Cosmos, the light of suns and stars reaches us, 
the mysterious force of gravitation binds the 
whole material universe into an organic 
whole, the minutest molecule and the most dis- 
tant orb are bathed in one and the self-same 
medium. But surely beyond and above all 
these material links is the solidarity of mind. 
As the essential significance and unity of a 
honeycomb is not in the cells of wax, but in 
the common life and purpose of the builders 
of those cells, so the true significance of nature 
is not in the material world but in the Mind 
that gives to it a meaning, and that underlies 
and unites, that transcends and creates, the 
phenomenal world through which for a 
moment each of us is passing. 



THE END 



APPENDIX A 

SUPERSTITION AND THE SUPERNATURAL 
MIRACLES 

§1. 

The spiritualistic phenomena we have described in 
this book are usually characterised by sceptics as a 
"recrudescence of superstition,"^ and by believers as 
"evidence of the supernatural." If either of these 
statements be true they have serious and far-reaching 
consequences, and as they are both supported by some 
authority, it is eminently desirable we should examine 
these assertions carefully. And, first, what is the mean- 
ing to be attached to "superstition" on the one hand,^ 
and "supernatural" on the other? Supersition (Lat., 
superstitio) is etymologically the standing over a thing 
in amazement or awe. By so doing we shut out the 
light of enquiry and reason ; where this light enters super- 
stition fades away, so that we no longer enshroud a 
mystery by standing over it, but begin to wn^^r-stand 
it. Superstition is, therefore, the antithesis of under- 

^ Leading review in Nature, Vol. LI, 1894, p. 22. 

2 Johnson gives several definitions ; the best is "unnecessary 
fear." Cicero says it is "a certain empty dread of the gods." 
Plutarch's definition, in his interesting essay on Superstition, 
resembles this. 

^01 



302 Appendix A 

standing, and of that jaith in the intelligibility of the 
universe which is the sheet anchor of science and the 
lode-star of all intellectual progress. 

The definition given by a learned writer, Sir G. W. 
Cox, seems to me near the truth, if supplemented by the 
clause I have added in brackets, viz. : Superstition is a 
belief not in accordance with facts {wherein a false cause 
is assumed for a fact or occurrence^, and issues in super- 
stitious practices when such a belief is regarded as cap- 
able of affording help or injury. Hence, when a primary 
hypothesis is not only erroneous, but unrelated to the 
facts in question, we have the basis of superstition and 
its attendant evils, though the deductive reasonings from 
that hypothesis may be irrefragable. The witch mania 
was thus a horrible superstition. False ideas of the Cos- 
mos are fruitful sources of absurd and sometimes revolting 
superstitions. 

We are now in a position to test the first assertion: 
Is Spiritualism — using the word in the sense defined 
on page 9 — a superstition? Certainly it is, if not in 
accordance with facts; but those who assert this are 
the very persons who, on a priori grounds, deem the 
facts impossible or unverifiable, and have therefore never 
given to the subject any painstaking study whatever. 
Those who have been eye-witnesses and made it a sub- 
ject of laborious investigation, at first hand, assert that 
certain phenomena entirely new to science do exist, that 
the facts are there ; in fine, although differences of opinion 
may exist as to the interpretation of those facts, no one 
has yet proved that a belief in these phenomena is utterly 
groundless. On the contrary, every painstaking and 
honest investigator who has endeavoured to prove this, so 
far as I know, has failed, and many such have eventually 
changed sides. 



Superstition 303 

But if this be so, it is obvious that, with regard to 
these phenomena, the primary hypothesis of many 
scientific and educated men to-day — which leads them 
to reject the evidence adduced — is not in accordance 
with fact; and such a belief issues in a conduct opposed 
to the attainment of truth. Is it not, therefore, the 
average man of science, the average public opinion of 
to-day, that is on this subject foolishly superstitious? 
Nor must we forget the consequences of this erroneous 
belief upon the holders themselves. As the able and 
thoughtful writer, whose definition of superstition I have 
adopted, has said: — 

"It follows that every belief and every practice not 
based on, or not in accordance with, actual fact, must 
have an injurious effect on the mental and moral state 
of the thinker or actor. How great may be the mischief 
so produced, and how far it may check the growth of 
all literature, art, and science, the reader may gather 
from the 9th chapter of Hallam's 'Middle Ages.' "^ 

We are all familiar with one mischievous effect of this 
erroneous habit of thought on the part of the material- 
istic school of scientific thought. Starting from the 
fundamental principle of the denial of an unseen or 
spiritual world, everything is made to give way to that; 
albeit the ludicrous arrogance of this denial is obvious 
when we consider the narrow limits both of our knowl- 
edge and of our senses. According to this school, "any 
solution of a difficulty is more probable than one which 
would concede that a miracle had really occurred. This 
explains their seeming want of candour, and why they 
meet with evasions, proofs that seem to be demon- 

1 "Dictionary of Science," by Dr. Brande, F.R.S., and Sir G. W. 
Cox, M.A.; Art., "Superstition." 



304 Appendix A 

strative,"^ These are the words a former learned Provost 
of Trinity College, Dublin, Dr. Salmon, applies to the 
Biblical critics of that school, and they are equally true 
of many ferocious sceptics in connection with Psychical 
Research. 

§2. 

Let us now examine the second and opposite assertion, 
that Spiritualism is "evidence of the supernatural." 
Putting aside that school of thought which denies 
the supernatural in toto, numerous attempts have been 
made to define the word supernatural. Strictly speak- 
ing, as God is the Creator and Source of all things. He 
only can be over or above Nature. Archbishop Whately 
remarks : — 

"As Nature is another word to signify the state of 
things and course of events God has appointed, nothing 
that occurs can be strictly called supernatural. Jesus 
Himself describes His works, not as violations of the 
laws of Nature, but as 'works which none other man 
did,' Superhuman would, perhaps, be a better word than 
supernatural." 

But this was not the idea of the writers either in the 
Old or New Testaments. Their idea was one common 
to the age in which they lived, viz., that of the arbitrary 
action of a Supreme Being breaking in upon the ordinary 
course of events for a special purpose; a miracle was 
thus a sign or wonder wrought in order to attest His 
existence and power. Obviously, until science had 

1 Of such it has been truly remarked, "There is a bigotry of 
unbelief quite as blind and irrational, involving quite aa 
thorough an abnegation of the highest faculties of the human 
mind, as can possibly be the case with the bigotry of supersti- 
tion." — Rev. J. J. Lias: "Are Miracles Credible?" p. 12. 



Nature and the Supernatural 305 

given us conclusive evidence of an undeviating order in 
Nature, there could be no clear idea of a miracle as 
involving a violation of that order, no correct view of 
the "supernatural." 

An interesting discussion on the meaning of the word 
supernatural is to be found in Dr. Horace Bushnell's 
suggestive and well-known work, "Nature and the Super- 
natural." Bishop Butler gives a sound view of the matter. 
He says in his "Analogy," Part I, chap, i : 

"The only distinct meaning of that word [natural] is — 
stated, fixed, or settled; since what is natural, as much 
requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render 
it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times; as 
what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it 
for once. And from hence it must follow that persons' 
notion of what is natural will be enlarged in proportion 
to their greater knowledge of the works of God, and 
the dispensations of His providence. Nor is there any 
absurdity in supposing that there may be beings in the 
universe whose capacities and knowledge and views 
may be so extensive, as that the whole Christian dis- 
pensation may to them appear natural, i.e., analogous 
or conformable to God's dealings with other parts of 
His creation; as natural as the visible known course of 
things appears to us." 

Similarly St. Augustine remarked: "Miracles do not 
happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradic- 
tion to that which is known to us of nature." This is 
the view held by most modern theologians. 

In fine, as a former Savilian Professor of Geometry 
in the University of Oxford, the Rev. Baden Powell, 
F.R.S., said in his admirable series of essays on the "Order 
of Nature," p. 232, et seq.\ — 

"The limits of the study of nature do not bring us to 



3o6 Appendix A 

the supernatural ... if at any particular point" science 
finds a present limit, what is beyond science is not there- 
fore beyond nature; it is only unknown nature; when 
we cease to trace law we are sure law remains to be 
traced. Whatever amount of the marvellous we 
encounter in the investigation of facts, such extraor- 
dinary phenomena will be sure at some future time to 
receive their explanation. As Spinoza argued, we cannot 
pretend to determine the boundary between the natural 
and the supernatural until the whole of Nature is open 
to our knowledge. . . . From the very conditions of 
the case it is evident that the supernatural can never be 
a matter of science or knowledge, for the moment it Is 
brought within the cognisance of reason it ceases to be 
supernatural." 

From this point of view it will be seen that Spiritualism 
is not and cannot be "evidence of the supernatural." 

The popular meaning attached to the word super- 
natural is, however, "Some occurrence which affords evi- 
dence of an unseen or spiritual world outside ourselves, 
and therefore not belonging to the present or visible order 
of nature." In this sense only but still improperly we 
might speak of certain well-attested spiritualistic pheno- 
mena as supernatural. 

Those who deny all miracles assume they know all the 
laws of the universe. On such men argument is wasted 
and they must be left alone if they refuse to listen to 
good evidence. As Archbishop Whately in an Essay on 
Superstition, wisely says, "If either Roman Catholics, or 
any others, will give sufficient proofs of the occurrence 
of a miracle, they ought to be listened to; but to pretend 
to, or to believe in, any miracle without sufficient proof 
is clearly superstition." 

In view of the phenomena of Spiritualism, I would 



Definition of Miracles 307 

venture to suggest the definition that miracles are super- 
normal and therefore rare manifestations of mind, and 
as such they may be evidence either (i.) of the Infinite 
Mind, or (ii.) of a finite mind in the unseen, or (iii.) of 
a higher transcendental part of the human mind. 

Another and vital distinction must be drawn between 
miracles which are voluntary exhibitions of super-normal 
power for a Divine purpose; and miracles, such as some 
of the phenomena we have been considering, which are 
manifestations of an intelligence and a power wholly 
beyond the control of the psychic, and with which his 
volition is concerned only so far as the withdrawal of 
any opposing mental condition. Of these latter (relative 
miracles) it is probable that the progress of research may 
render the miracle of to-day the accepted scientific fact 
of to-morrow. But the former being self-determined are 
not in the same category, and therefore will remain, as 
Kant says, among "events in the world the operative laws 
of whose causes are, and must remain, utterly unknown 
to us." 

It will thus be seen that the common Protestant belief 
that miracles, using this term in its widest sense, are 
credible in Scripture, but incredible out of it, is inac- 
curate. As Dr. Bushnell has well shown, so far from 
the age of miracles being past, there is unbroken testimony, 
from the apostolic times to the present, of the existence 
of miracles, i.e., evidence of a super-normal character on 
behalf of the existence and operation of unseen Intelli- 
gence. 



APPENDIX B 

NOTE BY PROF. BALFOUR STEWART, LL.D.,F.R.S/ 

I HAVE read with much interest the paper by Professor 
Barrett, on some Physical Phenomena commonly called 
Spiritualistic witnessed by him. He expresses his conclu- 
sions in the following words: "Assuming the evidence 
to be trustworthy, I, for one, believe it points to the 
conclusion that, under conditions which are so restricted 
that we are not put to intellecual confusion by frequent 
interruptions of the ordinary course of material laws, 
mind occasionally and unconsciously can exert a direct 
influence upon lifeless matter." 

As this is a subject to which I have given a good 
deal of thought, I trust the Psychical Society will allow 
me to make one or two remarks upon it, and I am very 
sure my friend, Professor Barrett, will not object to this 
course. 

Viewing the "Conservation of Energy" as the 
representative of .physical laws, I nevertheless do not 
regard it in its birth, at least, as anything else than a 
scientific assertion — a very sagacious one, no doubt, 
but yet an assertion. We are in profound ignorance 
not only of the ultimate constitution of matter, but of 
the nature of those forces which animate the atom and 

^ This note formed the supplement to my paper on the "Physi- 
cal Phenomena of Spiritualism" and was published in the 
"Proceedings b.P.R.," Vol. IV, p. 42. 

308 



Note by Dr. Balfour Stewart 309 

the molecule. Under these circumstances, chiefly to 
advance physical knowledge by means of a working 
hypothesis, but partly, it may be, as a weapon against 
visionaries, we have formulated an assertion known as 
the "Conservation of "Energy." It is unquestionable 
that this so-called law has greatly extended our knowl- 
edge of physics; nor have we met with any strictly 
physical experiment capable of repetition under fixed 
conditions that is inconsistent with this law. Now, 
what should be our course of action when a visionary 
comes before us with some variety of "Perpetual 
Motion?" The moral certainty that we are invaded 
by presumptuous ignorance is, no doubt, a sufficiently 
good excuse for not discussing the project. But we have 
a less objectionable method of dealing with such a man 
by asking him to put his project in execution, and to 
produce his machine, which we will then carefully 
examine. The fact that no such machine has been 
produced, and, as I said before, that no physical experi- 
ment contradicts the great laws of Energy, goes surely 
very far to justify us in regarding these laws as true — 
as laws which hold in what I may call the physical market 
of the world, ruling the physical transactions between man 
and man. 

But there are many who are not content with such 
a limited application of physical laws. In the first place, 
they repudiate the doctrine of free-will because they regard 
it as being inconsistent with such laws; secondly , they 
repudiate the possibility of what are called miracles; and, 
lastly, they repudiate (with contempt) the evidence for 
telepathy, and more especially that for Spiritualistic pheno- 
mena which has come before the Society for Psychical 
Research. 

One consequence of this mental posture is that 



3IO Appendix B 

interminable discussions have arisen between a certain 
class of men of science and the supporters of Christianity, 
the latter of whom have been far from judicious in their 
method of defence. These have until recently con- 
sidered miracles as Divine interferences with ordinary 
laws, and hence as abnormal and intellectually incom- 
prehensible occurrences, while the Protestant theologians 
have imagined that the power to work miracles ceased 
with the Apostles/ This latter doctrine was probably 
assumed as a polemical weapon at the time of the great 
controversy with the Church of Rome. It goes without 
saying that this method of looking at things will not 
recommend itself to men of science, and thus an em- 
bittered and useless discussion has continued between two 
classes of men, neither of whom has seemed to be either 
able or willing to enter into the position assumed by 
the other. 

Of late years, however, miracles have come to be re- 
garded not as breaks of law, but as phenomena embracing 
a higher law — a doctrine which is a great advance upon 
its predecessor. Now the question naturally arises, if 
there be this higher law, may there not be occasional 
traces of it to be met with in the world, even at this 
present age? It is, I think, exceedingly unfortunate that 
a large class of theologians have attempted to decide this 
question in the negative. It is not a question for them 
to decide, but for those who investigate matters of fact. 
This is in reality the question upon which the Psychical 
Society are engaged, and the circumstances which I have 
mentioned appear to me to lend an unusual importance 
to their investigations. Let us begin by allowing that 
the laws of Energy dominate the scientific market-place, 

1 See Appendix A, p. 307. 



Note by Dr. Balfour Stewart 311 

and the scientific dealings between man and man. We 
are, I conceive, extending this scientific assertion so far. 
But are we justified in extending it further? Are we, 
for instance, justified in asserting that under the very 
different conditions of things contemplated by the Psy- 
chical Society there may not be at least an apparent and 
prima facie breakdown of these laws; and more especially, 
are we justified in absolutely shutting our eyes to all 
evidence that may be brought before us in favour of such 
apparent interruptions? I cannot think so. We must 
examine everything. Because a scientific statement applies 
to one set of conditions, must it necessarily apply to 
everything else? I have always thought that this had 
to be ascertained by investigation, and not by dogmatic 
assertion, and I therefore conceive that our Society is 
abundantly justified in applying the Baconian method of 
research to all occurrences. 



APPENDIX C 

EUSAPIA PALADINO 

After the favourable reports by Professor Charles 
Richet and Sir Oliver Lodge upon their experiments 
with Eusapia, referred to on page 65, as there stated 
further seances w^ere held with her at Cambridge in 
1895/ I was not present, and, indeed, have never had 
the opportunity nor the desire to experiment with 
Eusapia, but those present at Cambridge came to the 
conclusion, on what appeared to them to be an adequate 
trial, that there was clear evidence of trickery on the 
part of Eusapia,- although Sir Oliver Lodge adhered to 
his opinion that the phenomena he witnessed in the lie 
Roubaud were genuine.^ 

This opinion was corroborated by that of the eminent 
physiologist, Professor Charles Richet. After the seances 
at Cambridge he for a time suspended his judgment, 
but subsequently, both in conversation with myself and 
on other occasions, has stated that he was absolutely 
convinced of the super-normal character of some of the 
manifestations which occur with Eusapia. This also 
was the opinion of the well-known astronomical writer, 



1 See "Journal of the S.P.R," Vol. VI, p. 306. 

2 ibid.. Vol. VII, p. 148. 

3 ibid. J p. 135. 

312 



Eusapia Paladino 313 

Camille Flammarion, who in his work, "Les Forces 
Naturelles Inconnues," deals at length with the pheno- 
mena occurring with Eusapia, and is convinced of their 
super-normal character. 

But the most remarkable testimony in favour of 
Eusapia came from some of the leading scientific men 
of Italy, men specially trained in the investigation of 
psychological and physiological phenomena. Perhaps the 
most notable witness was the late Professor Lombroso, 
who conducted the investigation of Eusapia's powers 
in his laboratory in the University of Turin, every 
precaution being taken against fraud. The result was 
that Lombroso publicly bore witness to the genuineness 
of these extraordinary physical manifestations. The 
opinion of so experienced and able a criminologist as 
Lombroso — whose high scientific status is recognised 
throughout Europe — ^necessarily carried great weight. In 
an article published in 1908 in the "Annals of Psychical 
Science," Lombroso refers to various phases of these 
phenomena, .including phantasms and apparitions of de- 
ceased persons. He points out that sometimes several 
phenomena occurred simultaneously, and hence were be- 
yond the power of one person to perform, and also that 
there is evidence of the intrusion of another will, which 
could not be attributed to the medium or to any person 
present, but which was in opposition to all, and even to 
the control, "John." He lays stress upon the importance 
of these facts in relation to the hypothesis that the oc- 
currences are explicable by the "psychic forces" of the 
medium and circle alone: an hypothesis which at an 
earlier stage of the enquiry he himself adopted, but which 
he now regards as inadequate. 

Independent testimony came from Dr. Enrico Morselli, 
Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry (mental thera- 



314 Appendix C 

peutics), in the University of Genoa, who presided over 
a set of seances with Eusapia in that city.'^ 

The control of the medium was very strict. Her 
hands and feet were held by Dr. Morselli and Sig. 
Barzini, editor of the "Corriere della Sera," who states 
that he was present "with the object of unmasking fraud 
and trickery," but was in the end convinced of the reality 
of some of the phenomena. The person of the medium 
was thoroughly searched before the seance, and the 
room was also searched; the light was never entirely 
extinguished. 

Under these conditions Dr. Morselli testifies to the 
occurrence of the following phenomena: movements of 
the table, raps on the table and sounds on musical in- 
struments without contact; complete levitations of the 
table; movements of objects at a distance from the 
medium seen in the light, and, also, the operation of self- 
registering instruments by the unseen agency; apports, 
i.e., objects brought into the room from outside; the 
sound of human voices not proceeding from any visible 
person; impressions on plastic substances of hands, feet 
and faces; the appearance of dark prolongations of the 
medium's body, of well delineated forms of faces, heads 
and busts. Although entirely sceptical at the outset of 
his experiments he declares himself convinced that most 
of the phenomena alleged to occur with Eusapia are "real, 
authentic, and genuine." 

Dr. Morselli was disposed to interpret these phenom- 
ena by what he terms the hypothesis of special psychic 
or bio-dynamic forces; that is to say, he attributes them 
to some peculiar power emanating from the person of the 



^ A very full report of these is given in the Annals of Psychical 
Science for February, March, May, and June, 1907. 



Eusapia Paladino 315 

medium. This is practically the psychic force theory of 
many earlier English investigators. 

Shortly after the seances held under the direction of 
Dr. Morselli in the University of Genoa, another series 
of experiments, in Turin, was conducted by Doctors 
Herlitzka, C. Foa, and Aggazzotti/ Dr. Pio Foa, Pro- 
fessor of Pathological Anatomy, being present at the most 
remarkable of this set of experiments. The seances yielded 
similar positive results to those held by Professors Lom- 
broso and Morselli. 

Another competent witness is Dr. Giuseppe Venzano, 
stated by Dr. Morselli to be an "excellent observer." 
He contributed an important article to the "Annals of 
Psychical Science" (August and September, 1907), 
containing a detailed record and critical analj^sis of his 
experiences with Eusapia, under conditions of strict 
control, and sometimes in the full light given by an 
electric lamp of sixteen-candle power. Dr. Venzano, in 
the course of his experiments with Eusapia, the light in 
the room being sufficient to enable both the medium 
and his fellow-sitters to be clearly seen, perceived a 
woman's form beside him, felt her touch and heard her 
speak: the form spoke with fulness of detail of certain 
family affairs not known to anyone present except him- 
self. The whole incident is a most amazing one, and 
Dr. Venzano states that, in his opinion, any explanation 
of this experience based on the possibility of fraud or of 
hallucination is impossible. 

Professor Philippe Bottazzi, Director of the Physio- 
logical Institute at the University of Naples, having 
read the report of Dr. Morselli's experiments at Genoa, 
made an attempt to verify the phenomena by means of 

1 Assistants of Professor Mosso, an eminent physiologist. 



3i6 Appendix C 

an elaborate and carefully arranged set of self-register- 
ing instruments, in the hope of obtaining an automatic 
graphic record of the psychic force exercised by the 
medium. Such a record would negative the hypothesis 
of hallucination or misdescription on the part of the 
observer. These important experiments, carried out 
vi^ith the collaboration of several able professors of the 
same University, w^ere remarkably successful, and 
Professor Bottazzi's article concludes by stating that 
these experiments have "eliminated the slightest trace 
of suspicion or uncertainty relative to the genuineness 
of the phenomena. We obtained the same kind of assur- 
ance as that which we have concerning physical, chemical, 
or physiological phenomena. From henceforth sceptics 
can only deny the facts by accusing us of fraud and 
charlatanism."^ 

In 1909 three members of the S.P.R,, the Hon. 
Everard Feilding, Mr. W. W. Baggally and Mr. Here- 
ward Carrington were commissioned by the Society to 
carry out another serious investigation with this medium. 
The selection was specially made with a view to the 
qualifications of the investigators. Mr. Carrington was 
a clever amateur conjuror, and for ten years had carried 
on investigations on these physical phenomena in the 
United States. His book on this subject shows his 
familiarity with the methods adopted by fraudulent 
mediums and his cautious attitude towards all such ex- 
periences. Mr. Baggally was also an amateur conjuror 
with much experience, and had come to a negative con- 
clusion as to the possibility of any genuine physical pheno- 

^ See Annals of Psychical Science, September, 1907, p. 149; 
October, 1907, p. 260; December, 1907, p. 377; where a full 
account of these experiments will be found, with illustrations 
showing the tracings made by the self-registering instruments. 



Eusapia Paladino 317 

mena. Mr. Feilding's attitude was the same, and, 
moreover, he had had extensive experience in investigating 
physical phenomena. 

The result of this investigation vi^as that all three of 
these well qualified men were convinced of the absolute 
genuineness of the remarkable super-normal phenomena 
they witnessed at their hotel in Naples. Since then they 
have had another series of seances which yielded quite 
different results and in which they obtained nothing 
convincingly super-normal and much that was obviously 
normal and probably spurious. The same thing was also 
found in sittings with Eusapia in America. 

How can we reconcile these conflicting results? I 
am not concerned to defend Eusapia, on the contrary 
I am more disposed to loathe her, but we must be fair, 
and give even the devil his due. Like other psychics, 
especially those who exhibit similar amazing super-normal 
phenomena, she is most sensitive to "suggestion," even 
when unexpressed; and in the trance, when her con- 
sciousness and self-control are largely inhibited, she Is 
the easy prey of external influences. In the absence of 
the steadying though subconscious, Influence of a high 
moral nature, she unblushingly cheats whenever the 
conditions are unfavourable for the production of super- 
normal phenomena. We have no right to assume that 
she is wholly conscious of so doing, for Professor Hyslop 
has shown that mediumship Is often accompanied with 
abnormal bodily as well as mental conditions. We know 
little or nothing of what constitutes the peculiar faculty 
or environment for the necessary production of these 
physical phenomena. 

If they are due, as some have thought, to an external- 
izatlon of the nerve force of the psychic, it is not Im- 
probable that the degree of this externalization will vary 



3i8 Appendix C 

with the favourable or unfavourable mental state of those 
present. We may even conceive that when this psychic 
force is restricted or not externalized, it may create move- 
ments of the limbs of the psychic which will cause her 
to perform by normal actions (in perhaps a semi-conscious 
state) what under good psychical conditions would be 
done super-normally. This would produce the impression 
of intentional fraud. Every one who has had much ex- 
perience in these perplexing investigations knows that what 
seems purposeless and stupid fraud often intrudes itself, 
after the most conclusive evidence of genuine phenomna 
has been obtained. It is this which renders the whole 
enquiry wholly unfitted for the hasty and unskilled in- 
vestigator. 



APPENDIX D 

SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATORS 
IN CONDUCTING PSYCHICAL EXPERIMENTS 

There are many earnest enquirers who wish to know 
how to conduct experiments for the investigation of psy- 
chical phenomena, and a few suggestions to this end may 
therefore be useful. 

( I ) . Thought-transference. 

Although the evidence for telepathy is both abundant 
and weighty, additional evidence is always welcome 
especially with a view to a better knowledge of the 
conditions of success. A recent paper by Professor 
Gilbert Murray, Litt. D., giving a record of his own 
successful experiments, in guessing incidents thought of 
by others, should be read in this connection; it will be 
found in the "Proceedings of the S.P.R." for Nov., 1916. 
Professor Murray points out how important it is to avoid 
tedium and lack of interest in all concerned in the 
experiment. Hence experiments in guessing a card or 
a number, though useful and necessary for statistical 
purposes, soon bore and weary the percipient, defeating 
the end in view. In my original experiments with the 
children of the Rev. A. M. Creery, 35 years ago, I found 
the same thing; and in the report of these experiments 
which Myers, Gurney, and myself published in the 

319 



320 Appendix D 

first volume of the Proceedings S. P. R. (1882) we stated 
that the more varied the experiments were made the 
better were the results obtained. Always remember that 
the essential thing is to keep alive the interest of the 
percipient. 

Further, it is necessary to avoid distraction of the 
mind, or any disturbances, and also emphatically to 
avoid any special anxiety for success. Make the con- 
ditions as stringent as possible, but at the same time 
endeavour to conduct the experiments as if they were 
an amusing game. Nor should the agents, — that is 
the persons who have selected the subject to be guessed, — ■ 
mentally exert themselves as if they were studying a 
difficult proposition. It is not the conscious part of our 
personality that is effective, but the sub-conscious; 
possibly thought transference occurs universally. If 
this is so it would appear that only in a limited number 
of persons does the telepathic impact emerge into the 
consciousness of the percipient. In this emergence 
delay often occurs, hence all the "guesses" should be 
noted down, as occasionally it will be found that an 
earlier impression emerges in place of, or with, a later 
one. 

Again Professor Murray confirms what I noticed long 
ago, that when the "agent" holds the hand of the per- 
cipient very often better results are obtained. This is 
worth further investigation, care being taken to avoid 
anything like "muscle reading" or hyper-aesthesia. 

A series of experiments should not be continued too 
long at one time, as sometimes it is found the trials tire 
or exhaust the percipient. Some correspondents have 
told me the experiments produce giddiness, etc. (see note 
on p. 57, "Proc. S.P.R.," Vol. I). But I myself have 
never noticed this, nor seen any ill effects from these 



Suggestions for Experimenters 321 

experiments, nor from experiments on "dowsing" (see 
Chap. 8 of my little book on Psychical Research, Home 
University Library). 

(2). The Dowsing Rod and the Pendule Explorateur. 

Various autoscopes, as I have called them, can be 
used to reveal involuntary muscular action on the part 
of the automatist. The forked dowsing rod is the 
simplest and most widely successful, but the twisting 
of the rod is no evidence of any super-normal faculty, 
nor does it imply success in the discovery of under- 
ground water or metallic ores. Its movement is due to 
involuntary and unconscious muscular action, and may 
be caused by any sub-conscious suggestion arising in the 
mind of the dowser. 

The same explanation covers the motion of the 
so-called pendule explorateur, a ring or other small object 
suspended by a thread held between the fingers of one 
hand; or passed over the ball of the thumb, the elbow 
resting on the table. An alphabet arranged in a circle 
round the pendule, will enable words to be spelt out 
as the pendule swings to each letter.^ It is tedious, but 
very amusing and curious results sometimes are found; 
unexpected messages and answers to questions may be 
given. If the holder of the pendule be blindfolded and 
the alphabet re-arranged, it will be seen how much is 
due to his unconscious muscular action and involuntary 
mental guidance. 

In both these cases, however, as in the use of all 
other autoscopes, certain persons will be found who 

1 Two centuries ago the forked dowsing-rod was used for the 
same purpose and messages purporting to come from different 
planets were recorded! 



322 Appendix D 

possess super-normal power, and the results so obtained 
cannot be explained away by any human faculty hitherto 
recognized by official science. In the case of the good 
dowser, — who may be a child or wholly unlettered person 
of either sex, or a distinguished man like the late Mr. 
A. Lang or others of note, — the faculty of clairvoyance 
reveals itself, not by a conscious perception but by an 
automatic action such as the twisting of the rod, when- 
ever the object of search is found; whether it be a hidden 
coin, or underground spring, or metallic lode. On the 
continent the pendule is often used for the same purpose, 
but when messages are spelt out by its means the ex- 
planation falls under the next heading. 

(3). Automatic Writingj the Ouija Board j etc. 

Here we come to a branch of psychical research which 
probably excites the most interest, and in which caution 
is necessary. Those who are new to the subject should 
read the suggestions given in Chapter XX and refer to 
p. xviii of the Preface. Young persons, and those who 
have little to interest or employ their time and thoughts, 
should be strongly discouraged from making any experi- 
ments in this perplexing region. 

Moreover, it not infrequently happens, as some friends 
of mine found, that after some interesting and veridical 
messages and answers to questions had been given, 
mischievous and deceptive communications took place, 
interspersed with profane and occasionally obscene 
language. How far the sitters' subliminal self is respon- 
sible for this, it is difficult to say; they were naturally 
disquieted and alarmed, as the ideas and words were 
wholly foreign to their thoughts, and they threw up the 
whole matter in disgust. 

With this preliminary caution, and urging all in- 



Suggestions for Experimenters 323 

vestigators to preserve a sane and critical spirit, the 
best results can be obtained when two or more friends 
agree to sit regularly at some convenient and quiet hour. 
A pencil may be held on a sheet of paper or a planchette 
used or the ouija board, already described p, 176.^ 
This last autoscope usually furnishes the easiest, though 
the most tedious, mode of automatic action. It has 
also the advantage that the person, or tvv^o persons, 
who touch the travelling indicator, can be carefully 
blindfolded and the alphabet re-arranged without their 
knowledge. If messages can thus be obtained, the con- 
scious, or unconscious and unintentional, movement of the 
indicator by the sitters, can thus be eliminated more or 
less perfectly. 

If after a few trials no results are obtained the circle 
should be changed and others allowed to try. When 
any messages are received, it is well to question the 
unseen intelligence and ascertain what are the best 
conditions and who is the most promising medium. Un- 
wearied patience and regular sittings will be found nec- 
essary to obtain the best results. Whether the game 
is worth the candle, the enquirers must decide for them- 
selves; personally I don't think it is, except for those 
engaged in purely psychological investigation. 

(4). Physical Phenomena. 

These are less easy to obtain; though table-tilting 
and the movements of other objects touched by the 
sitters often occur, and may usually be traced to the 
unconscious and involuntary muscular action of the 
sitters. Raps and the movement of objects without 

1 This board can be obtained for a few shillings from the office 
of Light, no, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C. 



324 Appendix D 

contact, cannot be so explained; nor can all of the 
remarkable motions of bodies which occur with contact. 
This will be clear from a perusal of Chapters IV and V 
dealing with physical phenomena. When raps first 
occur in a private circle, they are usually very faint 
ticks, and grow in loudness and frequency with continued 
sittings. 

Perhaps the best rules for the conduct of circles 
sitting for spiritistic phenomena are those long ago 
published by "M.A.(Oxon)" — the Rev. Stainton Moses. 
After instructing sitters to place their hands flat on the 
upper surface of the table round which they sit, he goes 
on to say : — 

"Do not concentrate attention too fixedly on the expected 
manifestation. Engage in cheerful but not frivolous con- 
versation. Avoid dispute or argument. Scepticism has no 
deterrent effect, but a bitter spirit of opposition in a person 
of determined will may totally stop or decidedly impede 
manifestations. If conversation flags, music is a great help, 
if it be agreeable to all, and not of a kind to irritate the 
sensitive ear. Patience is essential, and it may be necessary 
to meet ten or twelve times at short intervals, before anything 
occurs. If after such a trial you still fail, form a fresh circle. 
An hour should be the limit of an unsuccessful seance. 

"If the table moves, let your pressure be so gentle on its 
surface that you are sure you are not aiding its motions. 
After some time you will probably find that the movement 
will continue if your hands are held over, but not in contact 
with, it. Do not, however, try this until the movement is 
assured, and be in no hurry to get messages. 

"When you think that the time has come, let someone 
take command of the circle and act as spokesman. Explain 
to the unseen Intelligence that an agreed code of signals is 
desirable, and ask that a tilt may be given as the alphabet 
is slowly repeated, at the severJlI letters which form the word 



Suggestions for Experimenters 325 

that the Intelligence wishes to spell. It Is convenient to use 
a single tilt for No, three for Yes, and two to express doubt 
or uncertainty. 

"When a satisfactory communication has been established, 
ask if you are rightly placed, and if not, what order you 
should take. After this ask who the Intelligence purports to 
be, which of the company is the medium, and such relevant 
questions. If you only satisfy yourself at first that it is 
possible to speak with an Intelligence separate from that of 
any person present, you will have gained much. 

"The signals may take the form of raps. If so, use the 
same code of signals, and ask as the raps become clear that 
they may be made on the table, or in a part of the room 
where they are demonstrably not produced by any natural 
means, but avoid any vexatious imposition of restrictions on 
free communication. Let the Intelligence use its own means. 
It rests greatly with the sitters to make the manifestations 
elevating or frivolous and even tricky. 

"Should an attempt be made to entrance the medium, or to 
manifest by any violent methods, ask that the attempt may 
be deferred till you can secure the presence of some experienced 
Spiritualist. If this request is not heeded, discontinue the 
sitting. The process of developing a trance-medium is one 
that might disconcert an inexperienced enquirer. 

"Lastly, try the results you get by the light of Reason. 
Maintain a level head and a clear judgment. Do not believe 
everything you are told, for though the great unseen world 
contains many a wise and discerning spirit, it also has in it 
the accumulation of human folly, vanity, and error; and this 
lies nearer to the surface than that which is wise and good. 
Distrust the free use of great names. Never for a moment 
abandon the use of your reason. Do not enter into a serious 
investigation in a spirit of idle curiosity or frivolity. Culti- 
vate a reverent desire for what is pure, good, and true. You 
will be repaid if you gain only a well-grounded conviction 
that there is a life after death, for which a pure and good 
life before death is the best and wisest preparation." 



326 Appendix D 

The concluding sentence above must be read in con- 
nection with the various theories of these physical pheno- 
mena which I have given in Chapter IX. For my own 
part I consider all these manifestations are so closely 
associated with the subliminal self of the medium, that 
it would be rash to infer they proceed from a discarnate 
human personality; though the Russian case cited on 
p. 229, as well as Rev. S. Moses' own experience, supports 
the view that in some cases they may do so. 

As a rule the higher and more spiritual the content 
of the messages, the less palpable and material is their 
manifestation. The silent "communion of saints" is very 
far removed from a spiritistic seance. Telepathic such 
communion may be, and probably is, but, as the mystics 
in all ages have taught, calmness of body and mind is 
essential, 

"Some have striven 
Achieving calm, to whom was given 
The joy that mixes man with Heaven." 

And "Into that silent heaven the Great Soul floweth in," 
as Plotinus tells us. 



INDEX 
A 

PAGE 

Abercromby, Blanche, case 2i i 

Abraham, Florentine, case 2o8 

Aksakof, the late Hon. A 115, 165 

Alexander, Prof, (Rio Janeiro), evidence of 56, 83 

Apparitions of Dying and Dead 140-158 

" of Living Persons 153 

Apports 82, 87, 88 

Arnold, Matthew 289 

Auditory hallucination 147 

Augury 30, 31 

Author, the, papers by and experience of 

10, 38-48, 55, 57-59, 105 

Authority, influence of 26 

Automatic action 129, 130, 321 

" writing 162, 191-206, 322 

" " super-normal source 176-181 

" " through young children 1 74 

Autoscopes, meaning of 122, 321 

B 

Baggally, W. W 316 

Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J 15, 16, 27 

" Rt. Hon. Gerald 220, 244 

Bayfield, Rev. M. A xx, 281 

Beard, S. H., experiments by 153 

Beauchamp, Sally, case 136 

Boldero, General and Mrs., experiences 59-63, 72 

Brainerd, David, case of 214-216 

327 



328 Index 



PAGE 



British Association, author's paper at (1876) ... .37, 105 

Browning, R. B. and Mrs 58 

" Mrs., quotation 292 

Butler, Bishop, quotations from 7, 95, 305 

c 

C , Mrs., experiences of 38-43 

Caillard, Miss, quotation from 276 

Carpenter, Bishop Boyd 19 

Dr. W. B 8, 71 

Carrington, Hereward 316 

Caterpillars, change of colour 156 

Causes, secondary 1 1 

Census of apparitions of dead 143 

Chatham, case, the 192 

Chenoweth, Mrs., the medium 225-8 

Clairvoyance 236, 237 

" and charlatans 256 

Combermere, Lord, case 89-92 

Communications from discarnate, difficulties 

of 243 

Communications from discarnate, evidence of 

170, 185 et seq. 

Communicator, definition of 242 

Conscious self, a fragment of whole self 132, 278 

Consciousness 12, 127-133 

" double 134 

Constable, Mr. F. C 108 

Control, definition of 242 

Convent, apparition in Belgium 145-6 

Cox, Sergeant 73, 106 

Crawford, the late Lord, experiences of.... 70, 75, 94 

" Dr. W. J., researches of , , , 46-48 



Index 329 



PAGE 



Crookes, Sir W., opinions and experiments 

17, 21, 37, 53-55, 59, 75, 77, 84, 86, 104, 261 

Cross-correspondence 170, 205-6 

Cryptomnesia 210 

D 

Dallas, Miss H, A 250 

Dangers of spiritualism considered 

250, 251, 253, 259-261 

De Morgan, Professor, quoted 7, 21, 99, 100 

Delitzsch, Dr., quoted 22, 259 

Dialectical Society 53, 104 

Difficulties considered 235-251 

Direct writing and speaking 81-85 

Divining rod, see Dowsing 

Douglas, Rev. H., testimony of 63 

Dowsing 122, 237, 321 

Doyle, Sir A, Conan 249 

Drayson, General, experiences of 63, 64 

Dunraven, the late Earl, experiences of 70, 77 

E 

E s, Mrs., inverted script 1 91-196 

Ectoplasms, meaning of 87 

Ego, the 128-132, 281 

Elongation of body 72 

Eminent believers in spiritualism 21 

Ether, the luminiferous lOl 

Eusapia Paladino, conflicting evidence. . .65-68, 302-308 

Evidence, canons of 95-98 

Evidence of survival after death. . 145, 161-171, 207, 219 

" " " from Russia 229-233 

" America 

225-228, 234 



33^ Index 



PAGE 



Evolution of life in the unseen i i2-i 14 

Exo-neural action of brain 106 

F 

Faith, region of 29, 33, 264, 285 

Faraday on spiritualism 5, 6 

Feilding, Hon. Everard 316 

Fichte, G., on ideas 23 

Fire-walk, A. Lang on 75 

Fischer, Doris, case of 136 

Florentine, Abraham, case 208 

Fourth dimension 114 

G 

Gasparin, Count de 52, 106 

God, consciousness of 285, 286 

Goethe, quotations from i, 10, 235, 267 

Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E 27 

Glanville, Dr 296 

Gurney, Edmund 19, 142, 151, 201 

Gurwood, Colonel, case of 217-9 

H 

Hall, S. C 76 

Hallucination, collective 77, 78 

" theory of 37, 105 

Herschel, Sir John, quotations from 

20, 81, 103, 273, 274 

Hertz, Professor 18 

Hodgson, Dr 173, 206, 222-3, 239, 240 

Holland, Mrs., scripts 198-206 

" Canon Scott 285 

Holt, Mr. Henry 87, 234 



Index 331 

PAGE 

Home, D. D., experiments with 

57. 59-64, 70-72, 75, 86, 260 

Huggins, Sir W 27, 76, 94 

Human Personality 127-138, 278-283 

Husbands, apparition seen by Mr 148-15 1 

Hutton, R. H 8 

Huxley, Professor 6 

Hypnotic suggestions 78 

Hypotheses, various 104-109 

Hyslop, Professor .xv, 18, 136, 224-228, 243 

I 
lamblichus 281 

Identity of the discarnate, evidence of 161 et. seq. 

Immortality 287-289 

Imposture hypothesis 2, 104 

J 

James, Professor W., the late.... 18, 69, 131, 165, 166 
Johnson, Miss A 171, 203, 204 

K 

Kant, quotations from 279, 280 

Karma, doctrine of 109 

Kelvin, Lord, quotation from 33 

Knot made in endless cord 114 

L 

L , Miss, experiments with 43-45 

Lane, Sir Hugh, the late 186 

Lang, the late Andrew 69, 72, 75, 256 

Language and thought 275 

Laplace 96 

Leighton, Lord 17 



332 Index 



PAGE 



Levitation 54, 69-74, 79 

Life, evolution in the unseen 112, 119 

" conditions after death 188, 247, 283 

Lodge, Sir Oliver. .6, 18, 65, 123, 157, 166, 168, 219, 312 

Lodge, the late Lieut. Raymond 220 

(Lombroso, Prof 18, 107, 313 

Lotze 14, 286 

Lowell, quotations from xix, 25 

Luminous appearances 54, 86, 93 

M 

McDougall, Professor W 13, 14, 137, 139 

McTaggart, Professor 288 

Magnet, luminosity of field 93 

Massey, C. C, quotations from... 10, 98, 261, 264, 288 

Materialisation 86, 87 

Materialisation discussed 267-270 

Matter, mystery of 269, 270, 275 

Mayo, Dr 106 

Mediums, professional 257, 260 

" risk of health 261, 262 

Mediumship, problem of . . .xvii, 103, 117-126, 259-266 

Mental suggestion 78, 155 

Miracles discussed 97, 306, 307 

Morgan, Professor de, see de Morgan 

Morselli, Dr 314, 315 

Moses, Rev. Stainton (M.A., Oxon.) 

xvi, 73, 74, 189, 207-212, 241, 263, 265, 324 

Multiple personality 136-139 

Murray, Prof. Gilbert 19, 3i9. 320 

Myers, F. W. H. .19, 36, 55, 58, 67, 125, 163, 174, 268 
" " apparent communications from the 
spirit of 200, 201, 204 



Index 333 

N 



PAGE 



Necromancy 30 

iNeo-Platonists 281 

Newman, Cardinal, quotation from 233 

Noel, Hon. Roden 201-203 

o 

Objections considered 25-34 

Ochorowicz, Professor 87 

Ouija board experiments 162, 176-188 

P 

Passivity helpful 133 

Pearson, Prof. Karl, quoted 15 

Pendule explorateur 321 

Pereliguine case, the 229—233 

Personal experiences and belief, the author's 

10, 36-48, 177-183, 190-196 

Personality, human 128-135, 278, 290 

" multiple 136-139 

Personation of great names 240-2, 258 

Phantasms of the dead 142-1 5 1 

" induced telepathic 153 

" objective hypothesis 157 

Physical phenomena of spiritualism 

35-68, 111-114, 261-3, 323 
Piper, Mrs., experiments v^^ith. . 166, 170, 172, 219, 223 

Plato, world of ideas iii 

Plotinus 280, 281, 286, 326 

Podmore, the late F xvi 

Poltergeists 80 

Possession 135-139 

Poulton, Prof. W. B 156 



334 Index 



PAGE 



Powell, Rev. Baden 305 

Preiswerk 259 

Prince, Dr, Morton 136 

Dr. Walter 137 

Psychic force, hypothesis 106, 107, 1 10 

Psychical Research x, 15-20, 36, 51, 94, 238, etc. 

R 

Raps and percussive sounds 30-42, 45-53 

Raupert, Mr. J. G 249 

Rayleigh, Lord 17 

Reichenbach, odic lights, etc 93 

Re-incarnation 109, 288 

Religion, spiritualism not a ,34, 285 

Religious objections 27-34, 248-250 

Richet, Prof. Chas 18, 65, 67, 312 

Robertson, Rev. W. P., evidence of 180 

Rooney, Peter, control 182-3 

Ruskin, John, evidence of 13, 17 

s 

Sargent, Epes 255 

Schiller, Dr. F. C. S ix, xii, 19 

Schopenhauer 252 

Scientific objections 26, 99 

Scriptural warnings discussed 30-33 

Seances, precautions and suggestions 

33, 255-266, 322 

Senses often illusory 270-272 

Sidgwick, Professor Henry.. i, 8, 19, 51, 143, 147, 213 
Mrs. " ..9, 19, 51, 52, 85, 88, 

203, 205, 238-243, 260 
Slade the medium .,,,,,, 84 



Index 335 



PAGE 



Smith, Dr. Angus, letter from 141 

" Mrs. Travers, automatic script 184, 187 

" Principal G. A 31 

Spalding, J. Howard xviii 

Spirit photography, alleged 82, 88-92 

Spiritualism, cautions and suggestions 33, 250-266 

Spiritualism or spiritism, definition of 9 

Stead, W. T., the late 92 

Stevenson, R. L 17 

Stewart, Prof. Balfour 36, 109, 268, 308 

Stigmata 155 

Stoney, Dr. Johnstone 272 

Subliminal self 125, 288 

Suggestions for experimenters 263-266, 319-326 

Supernatural, misuse of word 29, 285,304-307 

Super-normal, evidence for 51, 176, etc. 

Superstition, discussed 301-304 

Survival after death 161, 170, etc. 

Swedenborg, quotations from 

III, 243, 247, 248, 258, 280 

T 

Tausch case, the 225-228 

Taylor, Isaac, theory of another life 1 12, 293 

Tekmeria 272 

Telaesthesia 237 

Telekinetic 36 

Telepathy 108, 236, 293-7 

Tennyson, Alfred — 17; quotations from 

140, 176, 253, 286 

Theories, necessary and discussed 103, 115 

Thomson, Sir J. J 17 

Thought-body 109, 1 10 



22^ Index 

PAGE 

Thought, projection, Influence of 108-110 

Thought-transference 293—5 

Trance phenomena, psychology of 238-242 

Trench, Archbishop. 262 

Triviality of phenomena often urged • • •4> 5, I97 

Tyndall, Dr 268 

u 

Universe, a cosmos 26, 28, 273 

Unseen intelligences, evidence of 41, 49, 113, 161 

"Unseen Universe," v^^ork on, by Stev^^art and 

Tait 109 

V 

Vennum Lurancy, case of 138 

Verrall, the late Professor and Mrs. . . 170, 203-205, 220 

Vision, human 152 

Visions of the dying 158 

w 

Wallace, the late Dr. A. R 6, 9, 21, 92 

Watts, G. F 17 

Wedgwood, Hensleigh 159, 213-219 

Whateley, Archbishop 304 

Wynne, Captain Ji 

z 

ZoUner, Professor 85, 1 15 



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